Skip to main content

Tag: Integration

Berkshire Health Systems upgrades EHR to Meditech Expanse

Posted on by
Berkshire Health System
On February 1, 2020, Berkshire Health Systems went live with a new Electronic Health Record system: Meditech Expanse. Berkshire Health System migrated from Meditech Client/Server to Meditech Expanse.
 
The upgrade was the culmination of a multifaceted project planned by the hospital and its’ implementation partners. Santa Rosa Consulting, Inc. was selected to lead the Berkshire Health Systems MEDITECH Expanse system implementation. “An implementation of this magnitude only occurs once every couple of decades for providers like Berkshire. We are thrilled to play an important part in its success,” said Mark Scruggs, executive vice president  at Santa Rosa. “Our vendor-neutral EHR expertise allowed us to present a number of viable options for Berkshire to select from, to meet their defined objectives. Ultimately, by deciding to upgrade to MEDITECH’s next generation platform, Expanse, the organization will be well positioned to meet the critical healthcare demands of lowering costs while improving the health of their patient population.”
 
Tido Inc. worked closely with their partner Santa Rosa Consulting, Inc. to lead the integration project for Berkshire Meditech Expanse migration. After doing an initial assessment of the integration environment, Tido’s team worked with the BHS Information Technology team to develop an integration plan tailored for Berkshire migration to Meditech Expanse. The detailed plan included suggested timeframes, resource allocations required, and responsibilities typically associated with successful implementation. One of the first steps our team did was to ensure that there was a stable integration framework in place by completing the upgrade of the Rhapsody integration engine; which would pave the way for thorough testing of all interfaces for Expanse migration.
 
Our team worked closely with Berkshire IT and departments on interface testing, validation, and user acceptance testing. We prepared a very clear go-live plan for all interfaces, and check-off list to ensure successful switch over for all interfaces. Tido’s team also prepared testing, validation, and management plan for all physician offices integrating with Berkshire Health System. According to Rachel, IT Manager, at Berkshire Health Systems: “Santa Rosa / Tido’s integration team were very thorough in their planning and implementation of interfaces for our Meditech Expanse Go Live. We had a very successful Expanse go live and we really appreciate their partnership.”
 
Our teams continue to work with Berkshire Health System to enhance physician office integration management and ways to extend EHR in the future with interoperability in the cloud with FHIR for Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Mobile Apps, and provide better security for integration with external partners.
 
About Tido Inc.:
For more than a decade we have been supporting healthcare providers with technology integrations, cloud services, hospital intranets-websites, and custom mobile app development. TIDO inc. started back in 2007, since then we have partnered with a number of health providers in the US and Canada. Our business is healthcare, and we work hard to ensure that we understand the unique needs of healthcare organizations and provide technology solutions and services to meet those needs.
We will continue to invest and enhance our suite of products and services to allow our health partners to provide the best patient care in their communities.
For more information, visit https://www.tidoinc.com or call (888) 778-3021.
 
About Santa Rosa Consulting:
Santa Rosa Consulting provides management advisory and technical consulting services across the spectrum of vendor and IT products and systems. We empower better healthcare by designing, creating, staffing and sustaining IT solutions that deliver quantified value. Founded in 2008, Santa Rosa Consulting is managed by industry veterans with an average of 20 years of healthcare information technology experience. Santa Rosa is recognized for delivering world-class services and solutions and has received Modern Healthcare’s Best Places to Work in Healthcare award multiple years in a row. For more information, visit santarosaconsulting.com or call (866) 944-4772.
 
About Berkshire Health Systems:
Berkshire Health Systems is the region’s leading provider of comprehensive healthcare services. With award-winning programs, nationally-recognized physicians, world-class technology and a sincere commitment to the community, BHS is delivering the kind of advanced healthcare most commonly found in large metropolitan centers. For more information, visit www.berkshirehealthsystems.org

Focus on the integration strategy. Don’t lose on patient care, workflow, and revenue!

Posted on by
 healthcare Integration
Integrated health system plays a very important part in delivering top notch patient care, and sustaining healthcare system. There are numerous systems and solutions available in the market today to assist with healthcare integration. Most healthcare organizations have some type of solution in place to manage integration, though there are many health organizations that still have point to point interfaces in place.
 
Strategy Recognition
Even if a health system has some integration product in place does not always mean that the integration solution is providing the most meaningful and efficient information flow to improve patient care.
Mission of health systems in some form or the other is to deliver exceptional patient care and improve overall health of the population. Health systems focused on this end result of providing exceptional patient care should focus on improving organization’s communication and integration efficiency as integration brings together all systems within the health system and external partners.
Focusing on improving organization’s information flow requires recognition and commitment to developing an integration strategy.
Organizations that overlook need to develop and execute an integration strategy might lose on patient care, workflow, employee efficiency, and revenue.
 
What is successful integration?
Do we consider a connection and exchange of data between two systems successful integration? Maybe, if all you are focused on is the short term goal of exchange of data between the two systems.
But if you want assurance that your integration is successful and will meet your organizations’ short-term and long-term goals, then your integration should adhere to carefully planned integration strategy.
 
What is Integration Strategy?
Sorry to disappoint but there is no one-size-fits-all model for integration strategy and successful integration. Integration strategy follows basic principles for healthcare integration such as:
 
  • Focus on patient’s needs, engagement, and participation
  • Continued patient care across all points of access
  • Commitment to quality of services and continuous care improvement
  • Use of latest technologies for efficient communication-information flow and protect personal health information
  • Treatment and care interventions linked to clinical outcomes
  • Engage providers with integration of provider ambulatory clinics
Integration strategy is customized for each organization. Strategy includes assessment of current environment, performing a gap analysis of technology, resources, and processes. Integration strategy should clearly define strategic initiatives needed for the organization and a roadmap to achieve these initiatives.
 
Don’t lose on this opportunity
As per Gartner’s latest forecast, IT spending is going to reach $3.85 trillion in 2019, and communications counts for biggest IT spending. Investing in integration solutions and resources will continue to increase however organizations with a clear integration strategy will maximize potential of their investments in integration solutions and resources for successful continuum of care across all points of access and increase in patient satisfaction.