Delivering effective care to homebound patients carries a number of challenges — from scheduling aides to providing up-to-date care instructions to transmitting information back to the doctor’s office or hospital.

In facing these challenges, Kalispell Regional Healthcare (KRH), a network of three hospitals, 32 clinics, and 20 affiliated outreach clinics in northwestern Montana, weighed the benefits of a new system with the potential costs.

In this episode of our thought leader podcast series, I chat with John Haffty, CEO of Navin, Haffty & Associates, on the importance of EHR value & sustainability in the vendor selection process. With extensive experience helping healthcare organizations maximize the value of their EHR, John shares his insights into how to make a wise EHR investment.

Quality care for our patients is at the heart of Med Center Health. Part of quality care is following the latest evidence-based guidelines for the treatment of various disease states, especially those with high risk of mortality. According to the CDC, more than 1.7 million people acquire sepsis each year in the U.S. with at least 270,000 deaths as a result. But early identification and intervention can help patients dramatically. As the “Surviving Sepsis Campaign” has grown and evolved under the auspices of the Society of Critical Care Medicine, the CDC and CMS have challenged hospitals and providers to treat sepsis as a medical emergency, set treatment goals, and rigorous deadlines.

Recently, at MEDITECH’s Physician and CIO forum, I sat down with John Lynn, the editor and founder of Healthcare Scene, and also the founder of two conferences, Expo.Health and the Healthcare IT Marketing and PR. He is an entrepreneur with a broad range of IT skills and the ability to bridge the gap between technical and non-technical groups. Some other strengths include a strong experience in healthcare IT (specifically electronic medical records), marketing, blogging, social media and SEO.

As an EHR vendor, it’s our responsibility to know where the industry is going and why. We drive innovation in the healthcare IT space so we can provide the tools clinicians need to care for their patients. The healthcare spectrum is complex, and we know that our technology has to provide interoperable data across care settings.

Have you seen MEDITECH’s For Us, It’s Personal video on what the healthcare industry means to us? In the video, I shared that my sister passed away from sepsis following a bone marrow transplant related to leukemia. Like many others, my personal experiences contribute to my passion at work, and my after-hours engagement as a member of a patient advisory board.

Over the past year, we’ve seen the term ‘gameplay’ popping up in more and more places. People seem to be quite taken with the notion that the logistics and patterns surrounding games and their rules can be applied to business, politics, and everyday obstacles. As I would discover at the 2018 MGMA Annual Conference, gameplay can tell us a lot about how to succeed in healthcare today.

Cancer is a relentless and complex disease. Twenty-five years ago, if you were diagnosed with cancer, your chances of being alive five years later were only about 48-49 percent. But today, thanks to medical and technology advancements, survival rates have improved to 66-67 percent.

As healthcare organizations further integrate technology into their operations, the risk of cyberattacks increases — and research shows that today’s healthcare leaders are continually looking for ways to lower that risk.

MEDITECH recently introduced MEDITECH Greenfield, our new application development environment supported by RESTful APIs, including FHIR. Greenfield is an open space for customers and third-party developers to create and share applications that drive innovation, increase interoperability, and grow the value of their Expanse EHR.