Gibson Area Hospital and Health Services (GAHHS) (Gibson City, IL), the nation’s 5th largest Critical Access Hospital, has signed for MEDITECH Expanse as its go-forward platform. GAHHS has a long and proud history of being an independent healthcare provider, recently celebrating its 72nd year servicing its communities. As a rapidly growing organization, it offers an extensive line of services to eight counties through its main hospital campus and 29 individual clinics.
Maintaining its autonomy was essential to GAHHS’s decision to implement Expanse using the cloud-hosted MEDITECH as a Service (MaaS) model. MaaS reduced the overall resources and costs associated with the EHR implementation. It will also empower them to personalize workflows to meet the unique needs of their expanding line of specialty services, while still providing a single EHR platform for connected care.
“We have been using two disparate systems with add-on solutions, and have upward of 27 separate patient portals,” said GAHHS Executive Director of Communications Joshua A. Johnson. “We are excited to kick off our ‘Project One’ plan with the implementation of Expanse. Our patients will be able to use a single patient portal, and both our patients and staff will benefit from one EHR that provides one patient record, one patient experience, and one consolidated set of best practices for our staff.”
GAHHS is one of the only hospitals in its region to have received a CMS 5-star rating for patient satisfaction. With Expanse, it plans to elevate the patient experience by enabling its patients to interact with their care providers through messaging, self-scheduling of appointments, and virtual visit options. They will also implement MEDITECH’s secure texting and communication solution, Expanse Patient Connect, to provide patient reminders and appointment confirmation. Additionally, mobile solutions like Expanse Now will enhance the provider experience, affording them greater mobility to improve efficiency, mitigate burnout, and ensure patient safety.
Gibson also sees the opportunity to leverage Expanse as a platform for innovation by integrating additional third-party apps that can further improve the patient and provider experience.
“With disparate systems, it became increasingly more difficult and expensive to implement third-party solutions,” says GAHHS Executive Director of Finance Kara McAdam. “From a financial perspective, having a scalable solution with open APIs where we can implement solutions to complement the EHR, will be a great benefit.”
Another big plus for Gibson is integrated communication and care coordination between the acute and ambulatory settings.
“By implementing a comprehensive Expanse EHR, including Expanse Ambulatory and Expanse Oncology, we will greatly improve efficiency,” said GAHHS CEO Robert Schmitt. “The integration will streamline and automate workflows while easing the burdens of care transitions, and help provide our patients with an overall 5-star experience.”
The organization also looks forward to significant workflow improvements through an integrated revenue cycle and the ability to monitor patient populations through Expanse Care Compass registries.
"We're thrilled to partner with Gibson Area Hospital to deliver an expanding range of reliable specialty services for its rural communities," states MEDITECH Vice President Carol Labadini. "We believe that the Expanse platform will enable them to continue their strong local commitment to both patients and providers, now and in the future."
