Kidney dialysis firm DaVita will migrate to an electronic health record made by Epic Systems Corp., leaving its Falcon Platinum system behind.
The changing IT landscape motivated DaVita's decision, said Dr. Adam Weinstein, vice president of medical affairs with clinical IT services for DaVita Kidney Care. Given the need for population health tools and interoperable data, DaVita leaders realized they had to change the architecture at the heart of their homegrown EHR. Hence the move to an Epic-made system — dubbed DaVita CKD EHR — which will provide DaVita's physician customers with greater interoperability, Weinstein said.
"Our short-term hope is that, as our customers migrate to our new EHR, they will simultaneously embark on a pathway of gathering the necessary data and more robustly participating in quality reporting programs," Weinstein said. "We are excited to see how our customers are able to share data amongst other clinicians and institutions on Epic's Care Everywhere network."
That network allows data exchange among both Epic and non-Epic customers, who exchange 2 million records per day on the network.
In September, Epic announce the launch of a new interoperability tool, Share Everywhere, that allows patients using the Epic mobile app to let providers see and annotate their medical records through web browsers.
Along with taking advantage of Epic's built-in tools, DaVita plans on building some of its own population-management analytics tools on top of its new EHR, said Derek Schoonover, vice president of physician experience and DaVita Physician Solutions for DaVita Kidney Care. The company also wants to maintain familiar workflows in the new system, he said. "If the industry can use a similar chassis, transmission, and engine, everybody is a little happier."