Medical Information Technology, Inc. (MEDITECH), Westwood, MA, is pleased to announce that Avera Health (Sioux Falls, SD) has chosen to standardize its health care organization through one integrated inpatient and outpatient electronic medical record (EMR), which will unite 28 acute care hospitals, nine long-term care facilities, 80 physician offices, and over 500 physicians, across four states. Avera will spend $37 million over the next several years, converting its facilities in South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska from disparate versions of MEDITECH's Client/Server and MAGIC Releases to one standard system running on MEDITECH's most recent Client/Server Release. Avera will also connect local physician offices, most of which currently do not have EMR software of any kind.

"An integrated, comprehensive inpatient and outpatient electronic medical record infrastructure will allow us to further expand our information system," says Jim Veline, CIO at Avera. "This is not just the next big thing. This will improve patient safety and quality at the point of service, as well as revolutionize the way we provide patient care."

Patient care is of utmost importance to Avera. After evaluations of its current systems, Avera believed that a continued relationship with MEDITECH would be the only route to obtain its goals of providing the right information, to the right people, at the right time, in order to optimize physician clinical decision making.

"It's not a matter of picking what product is best today, as it is identifying a partner that you want to develop a relationship with for years to come. This is more of a marriage than the purchase of a product, and we expect this relationship to go on for a couple of decades," says Veline. "If you understand the corporate vision, the investment in research and development, and have a positive experience with the product support model, you'll have a long healthy relationship."

"We are pleased that Avera chose to continue its relationship with MEDITECH as it unifies many regions under a single electronic medical record," says Howard Messing, MEDITECH president and COO. "I see Avera becoming a regional and national showcase for integrated health care information systems."

A MEDITECH customer since 1990, Avera realized the importance of a unified enterprise-wide platform that makes patient data interchangeable and accessible to all of its staff members, which in turn optimizes patient care. A centralized EMR will contain information from patient visits conducted anywhere along the continuum of care and will contain complete visit histories electronically stored for each patient over the course of an entire lifetime.

"We are excited about providing our physicians and staff with this technology that will, after a short transition time, allow them more time to do what they all do best - provide excellent patient care," says John T. Porter, Avera president and CEO.

The single inpatient and outpatient EMR will enable Avera's physicians to access critical patient information at the right time and in one place. Avera's EMR will further enhance its relatively robust telemedicine and electronic intensive care unit (eICU) programs that are in place right now.

"It is extremely valuable during the patient encounter for our physicians to have their patient's history available, as opposed to relying on a paper summary that might be available at that time," says Veline. "It allows better, efficient patient care."

As Avera extends its relationship with MEDITECH, it will also eventually expand beyond the EMR to include MEDITECH's Advanced Clinical System. This Advanced Clinical System features CPOE, Bedside Medication Verification, clinical alerts, and an increased clinical knowledge base with suggested care plans, protocols, and order sets.