CaroMont Health, based in Gastonia, N.C., has signed an agreement with Mercy Technology Services, the IT services arm of the fifth largest Catholic health system in the U.S., to provide implementation services for CaroMont’s Epic electronic health record (EHR).
As part of the service, CaroMont will gain Mercy’s unique Epic system. Unlike Epic’s out-of-the-box base model, Mercy’s system contains years of enhancements driven by the physicians and nurses who use it, according to the announcement by Mercy.
Epic recently designated Mercy as an accredited provider of the Epic Connect program—the first in the country to receive such status. Through the program, Mercy provides Epic implementation, management and hosting services in a software as a service model, along with consulting for existing Epic clients who could benefit from Mercy’s best practices. Mercy also offers services to tap into Epic data, integrating it with claims and external information for population health, accountable care organization reporting and business intelligence.
Mercy made a decision in 2004 to install Epic—now in 33 Mercy hospitals and hundreds of clinics—and prepared for its implementation and support by training its own team of Epic-certified specialists.
“We have used multiple EHRs, and we wanted to consolidate to improve operations and patient experience,” said Mike Johnson, CIO at CaroMont, in a prepared statement. “This is a complex, large-scale implementation and it will be important that our efforts be successful. Our goal is to keep project costs in check and minimize risk.”
“It’s a substantial head start for hospitals wanting optimum productivity, advanced clinical workflows and evidence-based care already built in the system,” said Gil Hoffman, Mercy CIO.
