From forming partnerships with tech giants Apple and Google to launching a new division for EHR professional services, Meditech made several moves in 2019 that will continue to play out in the year ahead.
Here are 10 things to know about the Westwood, Mass.-based company at the start of the new decade.
1. In August, Meditech celebrated 50 years in business. It has grown to include more than 3,500 employees worldwide and 2,300 global customers. The company has a footprint in more than 20 countries and reports having 24 percent of the U.S. EHR market share.
2. Meditech focused on international growth this year as well as expansion in the U.S. Meditech UK became an accredited supplier in the U.K., showing that its solutions support National Health Service's goals and meets the Global Digital Exemplars standards. It also partnered with Aga Khan University in South Africa in September and reported that it leads the Canadian EHR market, with 47 percent market share.
3. Seven Mississippi and Alabama-based hospitals formed a group to share common goals and challenges around Meditech EHR improvements. The group, named the Mississippi Meditech CIO Collaborative, was designed to share strategies for improved patient safety and efficiency.
4. Meditech formed a new division dedicated to professional services and maximizing its Expanse EHR in April. The professional services were designed to complement Meditech's implementation program and offer on-site project management leadership, in addition to other services.
5. The EHR vendor in April expanded access to its private, cloud-based EHR solution Meditech-as-a-Service. The company launched the MaaS solution in November 2017 exclusively to critical access hospitals. The April expansion made the solution available to community-based health systems.
6. On Oct. 2, Meditech announced a collaboration with Google Cloud, making it the first company to offer its EHR through the Google Cloud Platform. The two companies also plan to develop native cloud products and application programming interfaces, Meditech CEO Howard Messing told Becker's Hospital Review.
7. People enrolled in Meditech's patient portal gained access to their health records via iPhone in October. The EHR vendor partnered with Apple, making the technology giant's Health Records feature available to Meditech Expanse and 6.0 EHR clients.
8. Throughout the year, Meditech developed and launched various new tools for its EHR systems, including an antimicrobial stewardship toolkit and an opioid stewardship toolkit as well as labor and delivery features for prenatal and postnatal care.
9. The EHR vendor also integrated solutions from partner companies with its EHR software, including Arcadia.io's population health tools and a voice assistant from Nuance Communications.
10. Several hospitals, health systems and physician groups implemented and went live with Meditech EHR systems. For example, in April Brockton, Mass.-based Signature Healthcare, which includes more than 150 physicians and 18 locations, implemented Meditech Expanse. Then in November Pittsfield, Mass.-based Berkshire Health Systems invested $35 million to transition to Meditech EHR over three years as part of a partnership originally announced in December 2018.