Cerner is expanding further into the Alabama rural health care market through a new collaboration with the Escambia County Healthcare Authority (ECHA). ECHA’s two hospitals, D.W. McMillan Memorial Hospital in Brewton and Atmore Community Hospital in Atmore, and combined four clinics will soon switch to the Cerner Millennium® electronic health record (EHR) platform across all venues of care.
“After understanding the complications that come with disjointed EHR environments, the D.W. McMillan and Atmore teams, along with our board members, wanted to make a long-term decision for the Healthcare Authority system with a single EHR approach,” said Nancy Lowery, board member, ECHA. “We are excited to collaborate with Cerner in this step toward further unifying our hospital systems to support the health care needs of our patients.”
This will be the first time ECHA’s hospitals and clinics will operate under a unified EHR with a digital record of a patient’s health history that includes clinical and financial information. ECHA will use Cerner CommunityWorksSM, a cloud-based delivery model designed to support the unique needs of community, critical access and specialty hospitals. CommunityWorks, which is built off years of industry and client recommended practices, can help address the unique set of challenges faced by patients and care teams at these hospitals.
“Connecting these two hospitals and their respective clinics through our CommunityWorks delivery model will be a major step forward for the health system. This change will revolutionize the way ECHA manages patient care, stores and accesses health records,” said Mitchell Clark, president, CommunityWorks, Cerner. “We have a shared strategic vision with ECHA that’s based around a dedication to interoperability and improved health care.”
ECHA has also invested in Cerner’s Revenue Cycle Management services, designed to optimize claims and billing processes. Each health system and its clinics will soon integrate Cerner’s registration, scheduling, patient accounting, practice management solutions and transaction services into the EHR. Cerner will help ECHA streamline the financial experience for staff and patients while controlling cost to collect.
