Stable, Unified EMR Enhances Patient Engagement
Hundreds of North Kansas City Hospital and Meritas Health staff have been teaming up for over a year to unify the electronic medical records of both organizations.
This lofty goal translates into migrating hundreds of thousands of patient management, clinical, laboratory, radiology and billing components into the Cerner EMR.
Stable
Taking on such a goal requires a secure EMR solution, which Cerner PowerChart provides.
NKCH Director of Enterprise Architecture Services Michael Hallisey is confident in Cerner’s reliability. “Inherent in the technology is a redundant infrastructure, meaning it was built to keep our EMR fully available,” Hallisey said. “For example, Cerner’s support through a continuous power supply and communication backups ensures EMR access is always provided and we keep running.”
Training Dates
Phase 1: Primary Care Clinics
- Staff and provider training: March 9-22, 2020
- In-clinic practice: March 23-28, 2020
- Go live: March 30, 2020
Phase 2: Specialty Clinics
- Staff and provider training: April 20-May 3, 2020
- In-clinic practice: May 4-9, 2020
- Go live: May 11, 2020
Unified
Unifying patient records into one Cerner system will impact 37 Meritas Health clinics, 300 physicians (Meritas Health and non-Meritas Health) and 57 hospital departments.
“No longer will patients need to access two patient portals — one for the hospital and one for Meritas Health — to see their health records and manage their healthcare,” Hallisey said. “Patients can look forward to seeing their information consolidated in a single, unified, secure portal. This is a huge advantage for patients because they can see their information more quickly and easily.”
Engagement
Patients can use the portal, called MyHealth, to message their physicians; select phone, text or mail appointment reminders; and access educational health materials.
Whether patients seek to check their upcoming appointments, view their lab and test results, message their physician or review their medications, MyHealth puts patients at the forefront of their health information.
“By having such access to their private health information, we know patients will become more empowered to engage with their physicians and be a part of their healthcare decision-making,” Hallisey added.
Patients also can view their health information through the HealtheLife app, available on Apple iOS and Google Android devices.