WINNEMUCCA — Humboldt General Hospital has teamed up with Cerner, a global leader in healthcare technology, to implement a fully integrated electronic health record.
Cerner’s EHR platform Cerner Millennium® will provide a digital record of patients’ health history, including clinical and financial data that will deliver a more complete and near real-time view of a person’s health.
Additionally, through Cerner’s new online portal, patients will be able to securely message providers, schedule appointments, view and settle balances and access their health history.
The system is slated to go live in November 2019.
HGH Interim CEO Karen Cole said she understands the power of EHRs to strengthen the relationship between providers and patients.
“The data, and the timeliness and availability of it, enables providers to make better decisions and to provide improved care,” she said. “Cerner has shown this is their goal as well, and we are pleased with the decision to move forward on their platform.”
Hospital trustees unanimously agreed to pursue the new system in November 2018 following a comprehensive vetting process by staff that included site visits, reference calls and on-site demonstrations.
According to HGH Board Chairman JoAnn Casalez, trustees were intent on finding a platform that could streamline all departments and all patients into one system.
Casalez recalled a board retreat in 2018 where HGH Chief Financial Officer Sandi Lehman showed trustees a graphic depicting the hospital’s current EHR situation.
“It was a very visual presentation of our efforts to connect dozens of vendors and somehow attempt to produce a comprehensive and user-friendly electronic record,” said Casalez.
She continued, “It became very clear in that moment that what we had stitched together was not giving us the results we either wanted or needed.”
The hospital’s new EHR will be deployed through Cerner CommunityWorksSM, a cloud-based delivery model tailored to help critical access hospitals like Humboldt General securely share patient health history, including clinical and financial data, across multiple venues of care.
Mitchell Clark, president of CommunityWorks, Cerner, said his company is looking forward to working with HGH to meet the shared goals of both organizations.
“HGH is committed to enhancing care and streamlining the patient experience for their community and we are proud to support their vision by providing a fully integrated EHR,” he said.
The hospital began a rigorous roll-out process earlier this year. Approximately 65 staff members have been designated as either subject matter experts or super users. Those in-house leaders are currently working with Cerner personnel to build out the new system.
Beginning in October, all staff members will be trained on the system in preparation for the hospital’s proposed “go live” on November 11.
