IT teams tackle major project at Providence Hospital
The migration of systems and infrastructure involves about 245 software applications touching everything from pharmacy and radiology to emergency medicine and physician workflows.
As part of the Providence Hospital acquisition, hundreds of software applications, including electronic medical records affecting years of data, as well as thousands of medical devices, will need to be migrated from Ascension to USA Health.
The project is being led by USA Health information technology teams along with consultant Healthcare IT Leaders.
“Every provider at USA Health and Providence will be affected by this change, but our goal is to minimize the impact to our providers while allowing for a seamless transition for all patients,” said Spencer Liles, M.D., a surgical oncologist who serves as chief medical information officer for USA Health and oversees the clinical informatics aspect of the Providence acquisition. “We are working to develop a merged product that is functional and safe for our patients but also optimally efficient for all care providers. In the end, we will create a seamless system connecting all three hospitals, ultimately resulting in an improved workflow for employees and a positive experience for patients.”
When Providence Hospital and its clinics became part of USA Health in October 2023, electronic medical records for the clinics were transferred to USA Health platforms, with the understanding that the hospital would make the transition by October 1, 2024.
The migration of systems and infrastructure involves about 245 software applications touching everything from pharmacy and radiology to emergency medicine and physician workflows. In addition, thousands of medical devices, networking infrastructure, end points and other ancillary equipment need to be migrated to USA Health systems.
“Everyone in our department in some shape or form is working on this Providence transition,” said Colin Wehner, manager of USA Health’s IT project management office. “This involves all subject matter experts and every team pitching in to ensure this project is successfully completed in a very aggressive timeline.”
A transition this large would typically take 18 months to two years to complete, but USA Health intends to finish it within 10 months, he said.
“Understanding that operations must continue in other departments, IT is working to prioritize non-Providence-related project requests to ensure resources are adequately allocated to projects affecting patient safety, revenue, and other critical functions of our health system,” he said.
Chris Glenn, senior director for clinical applications at USA Health, said the project will touch all aspects of clinical care services. “We’re creating a single patient record for care across all hospital facilities,” he said.
USA Health is also working to streamline existing software functions for the hospitals, he said, including implementing e-signature forms and digital consent forms. In addition, some applications in use at Providence, such as the FetaLink+ maternal and fetal monitoring system, are expected to be added to the USA Health system for Providence but also eventually at Children’s & Women’s Hospital.
“We’re asking, ‘Who has the best applications or workflows? Let’s adopt it,’” said Cindy Horton, director for IT training, innovation, and projects at USA Health. “We want to learn from each other and continue to foster a spirit of collaboration.”
To keep employees informed about the latest IT news, updates and announcements, the IT education team created a newsletter, IT Weekly, which is emailed each Friday to all USA Health employees.
