Interoperability

Lake Health, with 14 facilities, staffed by more than 600 physicians and 2,700 healthcare professionals, will be rolling out a Cerner EHR. The goal: support the Lake Health system and its employed providers, as well as create greater integration with its community physician network and to provide the best patient experience possible. Also, patients will benefit from a single health record accessible from a patient portal. “A strong relationship with our medical staff is the cornerstone of who we are, evidenced by their role in our mission and vision statements and in working with us to provide high-quality patient and family-centered health care in Lake County,” Jerry Peters, VP and CIO for Lake Health, said in a statement. The EHR will enable the health system to share and receive patient health records with affiliated providers, other area hospitals and participating healthcare entities nationally. Patient data is produced, managed and stored across multiple care organizations in Lake County, Peters noted, and Lake Health was focused on selecting an IT platform that could collect and analyze data from multiple disparate systems. “Lake Health determined that Cerner’s EHR and Healthelntent population health management platforms were the best choice to support its future initiatives and business model,” Peters said. “Understanding that this investment would most likely shape the future of Lake Health and the care we provide to patients, we completed a thorough evaluation of leading health IT suppliers and collaborated with our physicians and ultimately determined that Cerner was the right choice to support our needs now and into the future.” Peters did not reveal the anticipated cost of the technology. Cerner’s Healthelntent platform aggregates and normalizes data from various sources in near real time, regardless of EHR supplier and is designed to provide physicians and mid-level providers with meaningful data to identify and stratify populations to locate gaps in care.

King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital pointed to the implementation of InterSystems’ TrakCare health information system in helping it move from Stage 6 to Stage 7 in less than two years.

Nashville-based Ardent Health Services, which operates hospitals in Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas, plans to unite all its hospitals and physician groups on an Epic Systems EHR platform.

After years of dwelling in the shadows of healthcare, the long-term and post-acute care industry may finally be ready to join its hospital colleagues in the IT spotlight.  

Two southeast Missouri healthcare organizations – SoutheastHEALTH, in Cape Giradeau, and Missouri Delta Medical Center, in Sikeston – will each install a Cerner Millennium EHR system. The platform provides an integrated digital record of a patient's health history, including clinical and financial data. Also, by using the online patient portal, patients will be able to securely message their physicians, schedule appointments and access their health history. "SoutheastHEALTH prides itself on being a high-tech, high-touch hospital focused on making a positive impact, and the EHR will help fulfill that mission," said Ken Bateman, president and CEO of SoutheastHEALTH, in a statement. Besides transitioning to Millennium, Missouri Delta Medical Center will also deploy Cerner's CommunityWorks technology, a prescriptive and remote-hosted IT platform tailored to support community healthcare organizations that provide care to rural communities. [Also: Cerner taps John Glaser to lead EHR company's population health efforts] More than half of Cerner clients that are live with the CommunityWorks model have achieved Stage 6 of the HIMSS Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model. "As a rural community hospital, we have been recognized with top performing patient satisfaction scores and clinical process of care measures," said Jason Schrumpf, president and CEO of Missouri Delta Medical Center, in a statement. Both organizations expect to benefit from advanced interoperability capabilities, which will enable the transfer of patient data between the organizations and among health systems across the country. Twitter: @Bernie_HITN Email the writer: bernie.monegain@himssmedia.com Like Healthcare IT News on Facebook and LinkedIn

For Vice President Joe Biden, his National Cancer Moonshot Initiative is more than just a government program – it's personal.

Two new funding initiatives, dubbed High Impact Pilots Standards Exploration Award, will focus on improving care delivery and data sharing.  

The Health and Human Services chief said that HHS is working to eliminate data blocking, enable interoperability, and protect patient data as it moves around the healthcare system. 

Dubbed release candidate number 3, the latest incarnation of the emerging interoperability standard also brings advancements for workflow, eClaims, CCDA profiles and provider directories. 

Two-thirds of healthcare organizations believe personalized medicine is already having a measurable effect on patient outcomes, according to a new survey. Even more, 75 percent, say it will impact their organizations over the next two years.