Denver-based DaVita Inc. (NYSE: DVA), a provider of kidney care services in the United States and in 11 countries around the world, has announced that DaVita Physician Solutions will partner with Epic to replace Falcon Physician, its nephrology-specific electronic health record.
In a blog post on the DaVita web site, Adam Weinstein, M.D., vice president, medical affairs—clinical IT services, explained some of the thinking behind the transition. He noted that in 2009, DaVita took an opportunity to help nephrologists with clinical quality outcomes by introducing Falcon Physician, a nephrology-specific EHR. “Over the last decade, the needs of our users and the demands of the healthcare IT ecosystem have changed and, as a result, we needed to evolve and differentiate as well. Our software must continue to support interoperability and discrete data collection, while still meeting all of the necessary documentation demands of our users and their patients.”
Weinstein added that there is an increasing need for connecting an EHR to hospital systems, other clinicians, and large data repositories. “There is a need for population health tools that are slowly finding their way into practices looking to identify their most complex patients. All of these tools require new ways to organize and think about data, which requires a fundamental change in the architecture of the way an electronic health record system works. This underlying architecture is the heart of our decision to evolve Falcon into DaVita CKD EHR.”
He said DaVita Physician Solutions would work with its customers to take advantage of Epic’s built-in population health tools. “Most of all, we are excited to see how our customers are able to share data amongst other clinicians and institutions on Epic’s Care Everywhere network."
A press release quotes Alan Hutchison, vice president of population health at Epic: "With Epic as its backbone, DaVita joins the community of connected organizations that covers almost two-thirds of Americans nationwide. CKD and end-stage renal disease are major drivers of cost and coordination is critical. By leveraging Care Everywhere interoperability, DaVita will not only be able to collaborate, but also to provide the Epic community with information and insights to help reduce costs and facilitate care.”
