OCHIN partners with rural hospitals on connected care
Portland, Oregon-based OCHIN announced this week its entry into acute care with a full-service electronic health record system that supports interdisciplinary care plans and clinical care coordination in an effort to focus on helping smaller hospitals across the country.
WHY IT MATTERS
In its announcement Tuesday, the nonprofit, health equity-focused National Provider Network said it has analyzed gaps in rural health care and is launching OCHIN Epic for Acute Care to give patients connected care and hospitals the opportunity to recruit more skilled talent recruit.
“Implementing a new EHR system is important for any healthcare organization, and it is especially important that rural hospitals have the unique tools and technology to increase their communities’ access to high-quality, connected care,” said Kim Klupenger, head of OCHIN. experience officer, said in a statement.
OCHIN already offers a fully hosted and customized instance of the Epic practice management and outpatient EHR. OCHIN Epic’s nationwide network of approximately 30,000 active healthcare providers reaches more than 5.5 million patients.
Minidoka Memorial Hospital in Idaho was the first hospital to go live on the new system, according to the network. OCHIN helped the hospital “connect the dots,” Sara Zielinski, director of nursing at Minidoka, said recently in a blog post.
In the post, OCHIN said the critical care hospital with an adjacent nursing home serving 50,000 residents in southern Idaho was discontinuing its old EHR system. The company helped Minidoka refine the platforms within Epic that would work best in both the hospital and rural health clinics – including MyChart to increase access to virtual care.
“We feel like having access to these types of patient portals will be a huge win for our patients and also for our community,” said Minidoka CEO Tom Murphy.
“More than half of our providers have experience with Epic before coming here,” he noted, adding that this is the “first EHR implementation where I haven’t seen physicians pounding on my desk.”
The network said in its announcement Tuesday that it is providing full implementation services for OCHIN Epic Inpatient with project management support, workflow optimization, training and more.
THE BIG TREND
Founded in 2000 as the Oregon Community Health Information Network with a grant to connect health care providers in that state, OCHIN has a rich history of enabling access to care for systemically underserved communities across the country.
More than a decade ago, the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Bureau of Primary Health Care Health Center Controlled Network awarded OCHIN $775,000 per year for three years to support community health with EHR installations and help its members achieve meaningful use requirements .
Earlier this year, BroadbandOhio, a division of the Ohio Department of Development, selected OCHIN as its statewide telehealth administrator to connect more K-12 students with healthcare providers and counselors through real-time videoconferencing.
ON THE RECORD
“Our connected care platform will ensure these pillars of their communities can remain independent, grow sustainably, and continue to support the health and well-being of patients in their hometowns and the broader region for years to come,” said Abby Sears, president and CEO of OCHIN in an announcement.
Andrea Fox is editor-in-chief of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.