Becker's Hospital Review

34 CIO / HEALTH IT University Hospitals eyes unified Epic EHR in 2023 By Laura Dyrda University Hospitals in Cleveland aims to have a unified EHR platform by the end of 2023. Cliff A. Megerian, MD, CEO of University Hospitals, told Becker's the health system is working on a full transition to Epic EHR, bringing together its hospitals, primary care and specialty physician practices, UH Home Care and more. "With the goal of being the most trusted healthcare partner in Northeast Ohio, we are investing in a new nervous system for the entire organization that will transform how we deliver care by improving the overall patient and caregiver experience, better empowering patients to access their personal health information and interact with their providers, and by advancing our population health analytics," he said. e EHR implementation brings together more than 80 work groups, 75 modules and 400 interfaces. It will take 18,000 build configuration tasks, 140 data conversion extracts and 11,000 building block decisions to complete the project. University Hospitals has also supported more than 1,000 EHR accreditations for the implementation. "e financial and manpower investment we are making with this implementation is just one example of our commitment to our patients, our caregivers and the communities we serve," said Dr. Megerian. n CommonSpirit Health sued over ransomware attack By Giles Bruce C hicago-based CommonSpirit Health has been hit with a proposed class-action lawsuit over the recent ransomware attack on the health system. e complaint was filed Dec. 29 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois by Leeroy Perkins, of Washington, a patient since 2003 at Seattle-based Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, a subsidiary of CommonSpirit. He was among the 623,774 patients notified in December that their data had been breached in the cyberattack against CommonSpirit, which started in September and caused widespread EHR outages and appointment cancellations. e lawsuit claims CommonSpirit failed to "implement and follow basic security procedures" and "follow its own policies" to safeguard patients' personally identifiable and protected health information, leaving them vulnerable to identity the. e complainant asked for class-action status as well as damages, restitution and other forms of equitable monetary relief, and declaratory and injunctive relief. A CommonSpirit spokesperson said the health system is unable to comment at this time. n Top 5 influences on health system CIO buying decisions By Giles Bruce N ine out of 10 health system CIOs say their purchasing decisions are influenced by key opinion leaders and industry influencers, a survey by marketing agency Merritt Group found. Here are the top market influences affecting those buying decisions, according to the 2023 Healthcare Technology Marketing Guide, which surveyed 20 CIOs in July 2022: 1. Media: 70 percent 2. Pressure from health system's network: 50 percent 3. Competitor advancements: 45 percent 4. Buzz around new diseases: 35 percent 5. Pressure from consumers/patients: 25 percent n Allegheny Health Network chief digital officer takes on CIO duties By Giles Bruce A shis Barad, MD, has been promoted to chief information and digital officer of Pittsburgh-based Allegheny Health Network. Dr. Barad had been chief digital officer of the Highmark Health subsidiary since May. As part of the new role, which he assumed in late December, he will oversee Epic EHR and IT strategy and maintenance for the health system on top of his existing digital and virtual health leadership duties. He had previously been a digital health executive at Dallas-based Baylor White & Scott Health after working as a pediatric gastroenterologist. n

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