Longtime MEDITECH customer Avera Health—a regional health care family including more than 229 facilities spanning across the five-state region of South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska—shared their story at MEDITECH's Physician/CIO Workshop this past fall. Due to the the diverse needs of Avera's large patient population, Tad Jacobs, DO, CMIO, and Jim Veline, senior vice president and CIO led the organization to enlist MEDITECH as well as its partner LSS Data Systems to provide a single, integrated Electronic Medical Record (EMR). This 'HealtheCARE' project, which started in 2006, aims to provide a community-wide and centralized medical record that electronically stores complete visit histories for each patient over the course of the patient's lifetime.

"This is the biggest organizational change in our history," says Veline, referring to HealtheCARE. "Over the next several years, we're going to spend $37 million to convert all of our facilities from disparate versions of MEDITECH releases onto a standardized system running on Client/Server Release 5.5."

Avera will connect local physician offices into the EMR through the LSS Medical and Practice Management (MPM) suite, thus establishing a comprehensive on-line clinical patient record. "Creating an inpatient/outpatient EMR requires seamless integration," states Jacobs. "Because MEDITECH and LSS utilize the same technology, we'll be able to integrate our enterprise HCIS with practices and clinics. This patient-centric approach will allow us to manage individuals across the continuum of care."

One of the key factors facilitating Avera's roll-out of HealtheCARE was the recent 'relaxation' of the federal Stark Rules, which has enabled Avera to offer EMR-related software packages and services to independent practices and clinics at an attractive cost. "Thanks to HealtheCARE, we're now utilizing the MEDITECH-LSS solution for a single, integrated inpatient and outpatient EMR," says Veline. "This single, uniform EMR bridges the gap between ambulatory care and acute care environments, a critical factor in meeting both local and national EMR goals."

A unique facet of Avera's implementation is that Jacobs has lined up his own site, Avera Flandreau Medical Center, to be the pilot site for MPM. "Most CMIOs don't want to be implemented first, but I thought it was key for me to be on the front lines personally, to demonstrate my commitment," he says.