Hagerstown, Md.-based Meritus Health recently launched a new Epic EHR through a partnership with Mercy Technology Services, the IT arm of Aurora, Mo.-based Mercy health system.
Three things to know:
1. Mercy Technology Services provides application management and consulting services to hospitals nationwide, including offering a software-as-a-service model that includes support with implementation, management and hosting of Mercy's Epic EHR system.
2. Meritus Health — which is not part of the Mercy system — chose to implement Mercy's Epic EHR system and worked with Mercy Technology Services for implementation and hosting. However, Meritus Health licensed the EHR directly from Epic, rather than licensing the software from Mercy Technology Services.
3. Meritus Health officials thought this implementation model would provide the hospital with the benefits of Mercy's advanced Epic software — which includes specialty modules and tools for clinical decision support and population health — while maintaining the ability to customize the EHR further.
"As we started this journey with [Mercy Technology Services], we knew we wanted to maintain a degree of autonomy," said Carrie Adams, PharmD, chief transformation officer at Meritus Health. "This process helped us retain the ability to make decisions about the direction of our EHR so we can build and grow a system that meets the needs of our clinicians as well as our patients."