Burlington-based University of Vermont Health Network is hoping for state regulatory permission to implement a $112.4 million Epic EHR system, according to VTDigger.org.
On Jan. 3, UVM Health Network filed a certificate of need with the Green Mountain Care Board, which is in charge of controlling Vermont's rate of growth in healthcare costs. It also regulates hospital budgets and the prices payers charge their members.
If approved, the network will set up the EHR in four UVM hospitals: Burlington-based University of Vermont Medical Center, Berlin-based Central Vermont Medical Center, Plattsburgh, N.Y.-based Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital and Elizabethtown (N.Y.) Community Hospital. The network's Malone, N.Y.-based Alice Hyde Medical Center won't be included because it wasn't part of UVM Health Network when the network started planning the implementation 18 months ago. Middlebury, Vt.-based Porter Medical Center may join UVM Health Network this year, but it also won't be included in the project.
UVM Health Network will rely on its existing capital budget to fund the $112.4 million Epic price tag. Officials said the implementation process will take 40 months.
"I think that it is transformational," said John Brumsted, MD, CEO of UVM Health Network and UVM Medical Center. "I think it's a huge step. It's something we've been planning for and looking forward to for quite some time."
The idea to link EHR systems originated in 2011, when UVM Medical Center — which was then Fletcher Allen Health Care — affiliated with Central Vermont Medical Center to form UVM Health Network, then called Fletcher Allen Partners.