MEDITECH's CIO Technology Forum

MEDITECH's CIO Technology Forum:
Putting Today's MEDITECH Offerings, Customer Accomplishments into Perspective

With so many changes happening in our industry, it's no surprise that attitudes towards health care I.T. are beginning to shift as well.

As patients demand a more active role in managing their own treatment plans, and government regulations require more comprehensive outcomes reporting, hospital leaders are less likely to be asked "Why are we doing this?" when it comes to adopting electronic medical records. In fact, a new generation of clinicians accustomed to the convenience of computers might be more inclined to inquire, "Why AREN'T we doing this?" when it comes to implementing new technology.

For CIOs, this sea change means that while they may not need to spend as much time selling high-tech's benefits to their Board of Directors, they're now under the gun to get these systems up and running as soon as possible. And the pressure will only intensify as the deadlines for ARRA and Meaningful Use grow closer.

MEDITECH's recent CIO Technology Forum gave many of our customers the opportunity to network with their peers, as well as share proven strategies for implementing clinical systems and securing user buy-in. Attendees also learned more about what MEDITECH is offering to help them achieve their goals for 2010 and beyond.

What MEDITECH Now Offers Our Customers
For the past several years, MEDITECH's development focus has been on helping our customers to improve patient safety and pursue quality outcomes--since achieving excellence in these areas also leads to financial stability and enhanced patient/staff satisfaction. CIO Forum participants were shown how our products serve the full health care spectrum, including not just hospitals, but also primary and specialty care environments, oncology clinics, behavioral health facilities, long term care, home care, and hospice. With technologies that support a "Care Without Walls" philosophy, our customers can now deliver consistent, high quality care throughout patients' entire lifetimes.

To support these goals, MEDITECH's current initiatives for 2010 include:

Providing resources for customers pursuing Meaningful Use, including road maps, matrices, and up-to-date information via our Interoperability and EHR Initiatives portal
Bringing our new 6.0 platform to more facilities, building on the 15 sites currently LIVE and 100 other licensed 6.0 customers
Integrated Home Care offerings that address the needs of both home health and hospice, including well@home Telehealth
Introduction of a Client/Server Oncology product, featuring workflow-driven status boards and desktops
Dictionary sharing across multiple health care environments
System compatibility with the iPad and iPhone handheld devices
Improving our active and predictive surveillance capabilities
Support for Personal Health Records (for example, possibly with Google)
Introducing a new Patient Portal.

What MEDITECH Customers Are Now Achieving
Even though MEDITECH is providing more tools for customers to navigate and overcome today's health care challenges, only the providers themselves can truly make it happen. Fortunately, as evidenced by the ever-increasing number of Stage 6 hospitals, and Citizens Memorial Healthcare's recent Stage 7 achievement, there's no question that MEDITECH facilities are quickly rising to the occasion.

The CIO Technology Forum featured a number of these inspiring success stories, such as Centura Health's groundbreaking statewide telemedicine project, Catholic Healthcare West's enterprise implementation of electronic health records across 31 different facilities, and Goodall Hospital's process-driven rebound from the brink of bankruptcy. Attendees also saw how several MEDITECH hospitals, each with different goals, forged their own unique paths to effective local and regional Health Information Exchange (HIE).

These testimonials prove that, with MEDITECH, health care organizations are reaching the highest standards of quality demanded by today's patients, caregivers, and government officials.