Telehealth News

EHR Integration Paves Way for More Telehealth Between Ochsner, Rush

Ochsner Health is integrating its Epic EHR platform into the seven-hospital Rush Health System in Mississippi, a move that will also open the door to more telehealth services.

Source: ThinkStock

By Eric Wicklund

- An EHR integration will serve as the springboard for Ochsner Health’s telehealth expansion into neighboring Mississippi.

The New Orleans-based, 40-hospital health system recently announced an expanded partnership with the Rush Health System, a seven-hospital network based in Meridian, MS. The focus of this partnership, executives say, is to integrate Ochsner’s Epic EHR platform into Rush’s health information framework, but it will also allow Ochsner to more easily expand its telemedicine platform.

“Our strategic partnership with Rush represents our joint commitment to bringing innovative solutions and best-in-class technology to communities throughout the region,” Warner Thomas, Ochsner’s president and CEO, said in a press release. “At Ochsner, we believe the best care is local care and this partnership provides Rush physicians and patients greater access to the depth and breadth of operational innovation and specialized care for which Ochsner is nationally recognized, while remaining right here in Mississippi and Alabama.”

Integration is a key component to connected health expansion, and a pain point when health systems aren’t on the same electronic health record network. Providers have to find easy, intuitive ways to share data and fit those processes into workflow. A clunky platform or complex, time-consuming workaround that doesn’t make care delivery any easier will be pushed aside, even abandoned.

Ochsner, which has a healthy telehealth and mHealth portfolio of services, will be looking to build on a relationship with Rush that was launched last year, when Ochsner began offering telestroke services to all seven Rush hospitals.

“Physicians from both organizations will have the opportunity to increase clinical collaboration, implement advanced, patient-centered technology and ultimately expand services in the region,” Rush Health’s Chief Medical Officer, Fred Duggan, MD, said in the press release.

In addition, Rush Health will look to tap into Ochsner’s expertise in remote patient monitoring and mHealth, including chronic care management programs for patients living with hypertension and diabetes.

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