ColumbiaDoctors seeks mobile engagement with patients

Here is Health Data Management’s weekly roundup of health information technology contracts and implementations.

ColumbiaDoctors, a large multi-specialty group practice affiliated with Columbia University Medical Center and New York-Presbyterian in New York, will use a mobile patient engagement platform from HealthGrid to connect with patients anytime through any mobile device to support care coordination, access health information and enable patient self-care management. The platform supports regulatory requirements such as EHR meaningful use and Medicare’s MIPS program.



Four-hospital Rush Health, which serves greater Chicagoland, has picked the HealthShare interoperability platform of InterSystems to improve care coordination. The delivery system will have a private health information exchange to give primary, specialty, sub-acute and hospital providers access to patient records across the care continuum from within their electronic health record systems. The platform also offers alert and notification services and is part of an effort to transition to value-based care. The platform enables access to other HIEs as well.

Also See: St. Elizabeth Healthcare selects a patient engagement partner

Rusk County Memorial Hospital, a critical access hospital in Ladysmith, Wis., recently went live on the Affinity Enterprise Resource Planning software of Harris Healthcare. Soon after implementation, the facility saw reduced days to close month end, improved accounts payable turnaround and improved efficiency with less staff, according to David Kuehn, chief financial officer. General ledger, accounts payable and asset management modules were on time and 10 percent under budget. Materials management and budgeting went live on December 1 with cost accounting, human capital and supply chain management included in upcoming implementations.

The OpenVista electronic health record of Medsphere Systems Corp. is live at TaraVista Behavioral Health Center, a new facility in Devens, Mass. The facility currently has 36 beds with a goal of 108 when construction is complete. Phoenix Health Systems, a division of Medsphere, is providing additional IT support services. Health Partners New England launched the health center.

Rochester RHIO in western New York has adopted the Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (MOLST) software from Excellus BlueCross BlueShield to facilitate end-of-life discussions with patients and families. The electronic version, called eMOLST, is a web-based system supporting completion and documentation of the discussion in a database that also serves as the state’s registry for such documents. Excellus offers MOLST in paper and electronic formats at no cost to providers across the state.