Implementing an electronic health record system at 18 sites spread across three regions is no small task. Now imagine doing so during a pandemic.

At Steward Health Care, the organization leveraged their standard corporate build, coupled with a virtual command center, to bring 18 sites across five states live in just over a year.

By using a standards-based approach, working with regional governance teams and emphasizing quality, they were able to carefully balance regional autonomy with corporate best practices.

"There are three significant benefits to standardized content," said David Colarusso, chief information officer at Steward Health Care.

Colarusso, who will address the topic of virtual EHR implementation next month at HIMSS21, explained the first is the normalization of data for reporting across sites, allowing for quick and easy reporting of metrics across facilities.

"Second is the ease and speed of implementation and training," he said. "System build time is minimized with standardized content, and training can be reutilized as a standard set."

Third, and most important, is greatly increased operational resource utilization, where information systems staff can efficiently and quickly update the system with required changes, streamlining the rollout to all facilities.

"Operational staff can move between locations with ease, as there is little to no need for additional training on software for an employee moving from one facility to another," Colarusso said.

His team relied heavily on the Microsoft Teams platform, which allowed them  to set up separate "channels" for support that users could access for real-time assistance with education or trouble shooting.

In their local command centers, they set up 60-inch screens running Teams connected to the control center nonstop.

"A user could walk into the command center and have the same experience as if we were there live via virtual technology," he noted. "We also augmented this process with mobile workstations fitted with webcams in areas we believe could benefit from a video stream to observe what a user was doing, such as in Lab with instruments."

He said one of the prerequisites that they completed prior to the go-live that allowed them to achieve success was the adoption of standard policies and procedures by the facilities that were directly tied to the EHR build.

"This allowed us to train staff to the same set of policies," he said. "That – along with building executive support locally – helped make the Live successful and nearly seamless."

David Colarusso will emphasize the benefits of a standards-based approach to virtual EHR deployment at HIMSS21 in a session titled "Virtually Implementing an EHR Across Multiple Regions." It's scheduled for Thursday, August 12, from 2:45-3:45 p.m., in Venetian Lando 4301.

Nathan Eddy is a healthcare and technology freelancer based in Berlin.
Email the writer: nathaneddy@gmail.com
Twitter: @dropdeaded209