At this week’s MUSE Conference in Nashville, BridgeHead Software is announcing the MEDITECH Interoperability Campaign, a new program designed to help MEDITECH Hospitals to achieve true data interoperability by quickly and cost-effectively upgrading to the BridgeHead HealthStore® ICA.  To get more information on the new program, we spoke with Micah Ciancia and Bobby Edwards of BridgeHead Software.

What is BridgeHead Software announcing at MUSE 2015?

BridgeHead is announcing its new MEDITECH Interoperability Campaign, which helps existing MEDITECH accounts upgrade their MEDITECH SCA or MEDITECH ISB/IDR systems to the latest version of the BridgeHead Health Data Management platform and subsequently deploy the BridgeHead HealthStore ICA (Independent Clinical Archive).

The new MEDITECH upgrade package combines both licensing and services is single package that makes it easy and affordable to migrate existing joint BridgeHead/MEDITECH environments to the latest version of our HDM platform.

What is BridgeHead HealthStore?

The first truly independent clinical archive, BridgeHead HealthStore, sometimes referred to as “a next generation vendor neutral archive (VNA),” offers a single, easily-accessible and standards-based software repository for all healthcare data. It enables hospitals to standardize access to key elements of the patient record while simultaneously freeing them from dependence on any single system to locate the information. BridgeHead’s HealthStore extends beyond this traditional VNA to manage the information lifecyle of data across the entire healthcare enterprise, both clinical and non-clinical – whether within a hospital, medical facility or across organizations.

Why is BridgeHead introducing this program?

This past January, BridgeHead Software participated in the MUSE 2015 Executive Institute, which focused on the topic: “Achieving an Interoperable Health IT Infrastructure.”  Much of the conference keyed off of a recent paper from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC): “Connecting Health and Care for the Nation: A 10-Year Vision to Achieve an Interoperable Health IT Infrastructure,” which describes the ONC’s broad vision and framework for interoperability.

With our new MEDITECH Interoperability Campaign, BridgeHead is introducing a path to interoperability for our joint customers. Our goal is to help hospitals leverage their existing BridgeHead investment to extend the reach of the MEDITECH EMR across the hospital system.

Not only does BridgeHead HealthStore help facilities meet new interoperability regulations mandated by the Office of National Health, but it also provides many of the interoperability requirements of Meaningful Use 2 and 3.

How does this support the MEDTECH Commonwell Initiative?

As a member of the CommonWell Health Alliance, MEDITECH is committed to making patient data available to providers regardless of where care occurs and supports the belief that provider access to this data must be built into health information technologies at a reasonable cost for use by a broad range of health care providers and the populations and people they serve.

Hospitals that opt into the BridgeHead Interoperability Alliance will be able to exchange data from their MEDITECH system like a health information exchange (HIE). They will be able to get information from outside of the MEDITECH environment and make it available within the MEDITECH environment without bringing it under MEDITECH control so people can see more information.

What is the end benefit for MEDITECH customers?

While MEDITECH hospitals are pressured to promote data interoperability across their facilities and beyond, many feel that they are not prepared to make the leap.  The new BridgeHead Interoperability Alliance provides hospitals with a clear, cost-effective and achievable path to centralized data management.

With BridgeHead HealthStore, MEDITECH hospitals can:

  • Establish a data repository that simplifies MEDITECH’s access for things like images and other clinical content, all via standards such as XDS;
  • Expand the protection of data beyond the MEDITECH system to other non-traditional data types;
  • Publish their own data for independent access by other applications;
  • Achieve a true Electronic Health Record;
  • Collaborate with others by extending data interoperability across a healthcare network.

How easy is the new BridgeHead offering to deploy?

The BridgeHead Interoperability Alliance helps hospitals leverage existing technology in a seamless, easy way. With cost-effective access to BridgeHead Software licenses paired with services from our team of experienced technical consultants, this new program will help our joint MEDITECH/BridgeHead customers to accelerate their path to data interoperability via the HealthStore ICA.

 

Read the BridgeHead blog: The Road to an Interoperable Health IT Infrastructure

Find out more about BridgeHead HealthStore