Ithaca, N.Y.-based Cayuga Medical Center and Safford, Ariz.-based Mount Graham Regional Medical Center both recently virtually implemented Meditech EHR systems due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Having almost finished its Meditech Expanse EHR roll out, Cayuga Medical Center officials chose to complete its EHR go-live with remote support rather than postponing. The hospital was not particularly hit hard by COVID-19 patient volumes, so it was able to use additional time available to staff to help support the go-live, according to the news release.
"If we were to set [the EHR implementation] aside and pick it back up, we’d expend a lot of time and energy getting the project back on track,” Cayuga Medical Center CIO Brett Mello said in a news release. “In many ways, having the resources available via phone has been much more efficient. The majority of our staff has been working remotely, so we have been using Zoom and Microsoft teams."
Mount Graham Regional Medical Center was also in the process of transitioning to an Expanse EHR when the pandemic hit. The hospital worked with the Meditech team to move to virtual training and went live on the cloud-based EHR system on May 1. The hospital's leadership team said assigning additional staff to support the go-live and appointing resources for communication issues helped it succeed.
After assisting with the virtual go-lives, Meditech established an implementation task force to develop plans for post-COVID-19 virtual and in-person training and go-live plans.