St. Joseph’s/Candler fast tracks implementation of MEDITECH Expanse Ambulatory across 100+ providers

 St. Joseph’s/Candler Health System (Savannah, GA) has taken a significant step toward its goal of becoming a fully integrated healthcare system, bringing more than 100 primary care and specialty physicians LIVE with MEDITECH Expanse while launching the implementation of Expanse Oncology in their cancer center and infusion clinics. 

In addition, their two Emergency Departments are also now using Expanse to provide web access to their 46 physicians and 42 hospitalists. Clinicians, patients, and staff will now benefit from a single cloud-based patient record across the health system. 

“Our implementation of Expanse Ambulatory was supposed to be a year-long rolling go-live across three distinct groups,” says St. Joseph’s/Candler CIO Nolan Hennessee. “Instead, we streamlined the process and have all of our providers LIVE in record time.”

The organization has a long history of connecting patients across the region, which stretches across urban, rural, and suburban towns in Georgia, as well as into popular vacation destinations like Hilton Head, SC. Part of their approach involves looking holistically at the patient, identifying what underlying health equity needs may impact their ability to stay healthy, and offering various programs to support them. 

“Our CEO envisions our organization as being more than just a healthcare company. He sees us as a healthcare access company,” Hennessee explains. “These programs include help with job placement, affordable housing, support paying for medications, and assistance with food or resources.”

St. Joseph’s/Candler Physician Network Vice President Allan Kennedy adds that having the right technology is a vital part of their strategy.

“Our goal is to be as connected as possible in order to provide our patients with the best care,” he explains. “Having all of our primary care physicians, specialists, hospitalists, and ED physicians on one EHR, and soon our oncologists, is a great step towards this goal. Having an intuitive, mobile, personalized EHR that gives us a holistic view of our patient’s care helps reduce the burden on our clinicians. It also enables them to provide more targeted, patient-centered care.”

As a leading oncology research center, integrating more than 50 cancer specialists was critical to their success. Centered around the Nancy N. and J.C. Lewis Cancer & Research Pavilion, the organization’s oncology services are amongst the most highly esteemed in the state. The Pavilion connects to a network of community infusion clinics and radiation facilities throughout the region, which, according to Medical Director Dr. Leonard Henry, has significant impacts on patients.

“No one wants to travel when sick, especially when it’s cancer,” Dr. Henry explains. “By providing a leading cancer research center in the heart of Savannah and through several integrated treatment centers across the region, we bring world-class cancer care closer to home and relieve at least one burden from some of our most vulnerable patients. MEDITECH Expanse will make connecting all points of care to a single EHR easier, enabling all of our providers to see a more complete picture.”

By sharing a single record, St. Joseph’s/Candler ensures that physicians in the ED can now see if a patient is undertaking an oncology treatment regimen, and target treatment around their condition. Similarly, oncologists can access information captured during ED or primary care visits. This integration will make it easier for patients to manage care across all these settings through a single patient portal, eliminating the burden of going to multiple places and remembering various passwords.

“MEDITECH Expanse has allowed for an integrated enterprise-wide EHR across St. Joseph’s/Candler, something that has always been a vision of mine,” says Hennessee. “As a longtime partner of MEDITECH, we were not surprised that they were able to implement a fully integrated solution that would meet our needs for today, and for the future. This is not only a win for us, but for our entire community.”