Community aims for technology forefront
Community Medical Centers is taking the first steps on a $75 million, seven-year project that will put Central California’s largest hospital system at the technological forefront.
The information technology project will introduce two comprehensive systems, Epic and Lawson, to replace an aging system of 11 different clinical and financial software packages.
Epic, which will provide the clinical system, has at other hospitals documented reductions in inpatient length of stay and adverse drug events through physician order entry, as well as improved ability to meet many additional patient care and operating efficiency goals.
With completion of the project slated for January 2013, Community joins an elite group of health care organizations nationwide using Epic, including Stanford University Medical Center, Sutter Health, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the Cleveland Clinic.
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| Jamie Franklin, chief project management officer |
Lawson will enhance the business capabilities of human resources, payroll, materials management and finance, Franklin said.
Both systems will be implemented corporate-wide, at Community Regional Medical Center, Clovis Community Medical Center, Fresno Heart & Surgical Hospital and Community’s other facilities.
As the new information-technology systems are introduced, Community’s staff and physicians will gain efficient access to more comprehensive information to better enable their patient care decision-making, among other benefits. The first step in the project will be to introduce an enhanced, customer-friendly scheduling, registration and billing process throughout Community.
Through an organization-wide selection process, 11 different vendors were considered before Community decided Epic and Lawson would best meet the hospital system’s current and future needs, Franklin said.
“Both Epic and Lawson are established leaders in the health care technology industry,” Franklin said. “Their software solutions have been implemented with acclaim across the country.”
This story was reported by Eddie Hughes. He can be reached at eddieh@communitymedical.org.