Mergers and acquisitions in the healthcare sector have been on an upswing, and while the pandemic may have dampened activity in 2020, partnerships are still being brokered. Bringing healthcare organizations together through M&As can pose many challenges, not the least of which is consolidating EHRs to create a single, coordinated, efficient platform for the entire enterprise.
The responsibility of selecting one EHR instance and executing on the consolidation falls on senior executives in the healthcare organization’s IT department. And the work doesn’t stop after the last go-live. To realize the benefits that a common EHR promises, IT leaders need to ensure the platform is agile, flexible and adequately resourced to accommodate their organizations’ changing needs and goals.
Bluetree invited six members of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) to a virtual thought leadership roundtable to discuss their experiences with instance consolidations, their decision-making processes, how consolidation affected their organizations’ cultures and their strategies for long-term success. CHIME CEO and President Russell Branzell moderated the discussion.