Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/821337
67 CIO / HEALTH IT DOD Reveals Cerner Implementation Timeline By Jessica Kim Cohen D uring a Senate appropriations subcommittee hearing on March 29, the U.S. Department of Defense presented an updated timeline for its Cerner implementation rollout. Here are five things to know. 1. Stacy A. Cummings, a program executive officer for defense health- care management systems, testified on behalf of DOD at a hearing on the defense health program budget for fiscal year 2018. She said rollout of the new EHR system, MHS Genesis, will follow a "wave model," ul- timately replacing DOD's legacy healthcare systems, which encompass more than 9.4 million beneficiaries. "is approach allows DOD to take full advantage of lessons learned and experiences gained from prior waves to maximize efficiencies in subsequent waves," Ms. Cummings said during her testimony. 2. e EHR system uses a commercial platform by Cerner as part of a $4.3 billion DOD contract awarded to Leidos, Cerner and Accenture in July 2015. 3. e first wave of facilities to receive MHS Genesis began on Feb. 7 in the Pacific Northwest, when the DOD implemented MHS Genesis at Fairchild Air Force Base outside Spokane, Wash. 4. e next three implementation sites will be Naval Hospital Oak Har- bor, Naval Hospital Bremerton and Madigan Army Medical Center outside Lakewood, all located in Washington state. is MHS Genesis rollout will begin at the end of fiscal year 2017. 5. From there, deployment will proceed with 23 waves across three con- tinental U.S. regions and two regions overseas through 2022. e typical wave will include three hospitals and 15 physical locations and will last for roughly one year. n Epic Pranks Internet With Tinder-Style App By Jessica Kim Cohen E pic restructured its homepage on April 1 to advertise a new product: Epic TinDr. The April Fools Day prank promoted a pretend smart- phone app that enabled physicians and patients to select one another with Tinder-style swiping. The app would allow physicians and patients to search through profiles to deter- mine interest. "If both parties swipe right, the patient and doctor can start chatting and set up an appointment," the website read. Epic's website, which was updated with the company's stan- dard homepage by the following week, included testimoni- als from fake physicians during the prank. "I like being able to choose patients that I think will be a good fit," one testimonial said. "If a photo shows a patient posing next to a car, I usually swipe right. I like knowing that they're going to be able to make it to the appointment." The website also boasted 70 percent of patients were drawn to the app in initial pilot testing, since the service "doesn't require the commitment of a traditional doctor-pa- tient relationship." "If our first appointment bombs, I can keep swiping to find a different doctor," one patient testi- monial said. "It empowers me to make decisions about my own care." n Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center to Implement Cerner's EHR Platform By Anuja Vaidya P omona (Calif.) Valley Hospital Medical Center will im- plement Cerner's Millennium EHR platform across all facilities. The organization's hospital and outpatient facilities will tran- sition to Cerner Millennium, replacing the Cerner Soarian Clinicals platform, the NextGen ambulatory system and sev- eral other suppliers. However, it will retain its investment in the Cerner Soarian Financials platform. Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center includes a 437-bed hospital and outpatient services. In 2016, it received a Patient Safety Excellence Award from Healthgrades. It is also open- ing a new regional trauma center. "Cerner has fulfilled its promise to not only maintain and sup- port its acquired platforms, but also support decisions that are in the best interest of our organization," said Kent Hoyos, CIO of PVHMC. n Appalachian Regional Healthcare to Implement Meditech EHR By Jessica Kim Cohen A ppalachian Regional Healthcare will adopt Meditech's Web EHR later this year. The Hazard, Ky.-based integrated delivery network will implement Meditech's Web Acute, Web Emergency De- partment, Web Ambulatory, Business and Clinical Analytics, Patient Portal, Critical Care, Quality & Surveillance and Cor- porate Management Software across its 11 hospitals. Appalachian Regional Healthcare — which is comprised of 49 physician practices and 11 home health agencies, in addi- tion to hospitals — cares for roughly 350,000 residents across eastern Kentucky and southern West Virginia. n