Two critical access hospitals in Idaho, St. Mary’s Health (Cottonwood) and Clearwater Valley Health (Orofino), have partnered to implement a shared MEDITECH Expanse EHR across their hospitals and associated clinics. The organizations will leverage their collaborative management approach — which spans over two decades — to implement the new intelligent platform using the MEDITECH as a Service subscription model.
MaaS enables a rapid, cloud-based deployment, ideal for rural health organizations that may lack sufficient IT resources and upfront capital to deploy and maintain an industry-leading EHR like Expanse.
“We’ve built a reputation for exceptional and compassionate care. To live up to that, we needed an EHR partner that would align with our core values of safety, compassion, and engagement,” said CEO Lenne Bonner, who oversees both organizations.
“MEDITECH checked all the boxes, providing us with an EHR that can connect hospitals, clinics, and most importantly, patients across our close-knit communities. This technology will help to improve the care process for everyone.”
Patient engagement is central to St. Mary’s and Clearwater Valley’s missions, as their rural populations often live a distance from the nearest hospital or clinic. Deploying a single patient portal across all facilities will enable patients to better manage their care from home, as they can complete questionnaires, submit health metrics, message their care team, and participate in virtual visits with providers online. The organizations will also use Expanse Patient Connect to communicate securely and bi-directionally with patients via text messaging, with appointment reminders and overdue health maintenance notifications.
While the organizations previously used different EHRs across their hospitals and clinics, MEDITECH Expanse will provide them with a single patient record across care settings, including their Level 4 Trauma Centers, for more holistic patient care. They will also be able to combine their expertise to roll out a core set of evidence-based standards across all facilities.
“Our new Expanse EHR will provide us with a strong foundation of evidence-based care while leveraging the latest advancements in clinical decision support and AI,” CMO Dr. Kelly McGrath explained. “But just as importantly, it gives us the flexibility to tailor our best practices to the unique needs of our communities. Not all hosted solutions provide critical access hospitals with this same level of autonomy, which is essential for us and the communities we serve.”
St. Mary’s and Clearwater Valley also partner with Kootenai Health, for critically ill patients or those who require more advanced specialty care. Since Kootenai currently uses another vendor’s EHR, MEDITECH’s Traverse interoperability solution was essential to their decision.
“With Traverse, our providers will be able to securely exchange patient records between facilities and embed this content directly within a provider’s native workflow,” said Executive Director, IT Strategic Partnership Ben Zumhoff. “This connectivity will enable our patients to safely and conveniently travel back and forth between facilities — or see specialists through telemedicine — and have their records follow them wherever they go.”
Clearwater Valley Health and St. Mary’s Health currently serve the healthcare needs of people across Clearwater, Idaho, and Lewis counties, providing more than 45,000 outpatient visits annually.
