“The features and ease of use that Summit Express Connect offers set it apart... Our strong relationship with Summit Healthcare was another differentiator.” - Mike Barnes, Chief Information Officer, North Valley Hospital.
Braintree, Massachusetts (PRWEB) July 21, 2015
When North Valley Hospital was planning for its migration from MEDITECH to McKesson Paragon, they needed a way to easily connect system interfaces to the new EHR platform. To ensure a smooth transition, North Valley turned to Summit Express Connect.
“The features and ease of use that Summit Express Connect offers set it apart,” said Mike Barnes, Chief Information Officer, North Valley Hospital. “Our strong relationship with Summit Healthcare was another differentiator.”
North Valley had individual application interfaces, migrating between EHR platforms which would have required programming, testing and troubleshooting for each integration point. This would have not only taken up time for IT/IS staff, but likely involved service fees from vendors.
Summit Express Connect simplified the conversion process, as all interfaces are managed by one, centralized solution. Once the Summit Healthcare team had made a few configuration changes, a myriad of interfaces started sending data into and from the new McKesson Paragon system via 45 delivery locations.
“It was very easy to make changes to our interfaces during the migration because there’s only one place to look, instead of 45 places,” Barnes said. “The conversion went off without a hitch because the Summit solution is so intuitive and the staff supporting it are so helpful.”
The benefits provided by the Summit system extend beyond the EHR migration project. Typically, every time a hospital needs to integrate a new application with its EHR suite, they need to purchase a new interface and then start from scratch with the data. In contrast, Summit Express Connect enables hospitals like North Valley to re-use data and to easily set up a new interface without purchasing additional licenses.
“Summit’s technology has saved us tens of thousands of dollars compared to a point to point approach,” Barnes said. “It also takes the burden off our team because they can copy data between interfaces instead of starting again each time we want to add a new integration point. As there’s just one central system, it’s easy to test new interfaces, too.”
When choosing new healthcare technology, CIOs certainly need to find feature-rich products, but the vendor they select to partner with is just as important, according to Barnes.
“Summit Healthcare is at the top of our list of vendors,” he said. “They always provide good value and fix issues quickly, even if those are issues of our own making. They’ve always been there for us and a result, I put them above our other vendor partners.”
About Summit Healthcare
Summit Healthcare is the choice of hospitals and providers who want to take full control of their healthcare systems integration and information management requirements. Since 1999, we have worked to provide the industry with the most flexible integration technology with complementary tailored services and solutions. Visit us at http://www.summit-healthcare.com.
About North Valley Hospital
North Valley Hospital is a private 501©(3), non-profit community Critical Access hospital governed by a Volunteer Board of Directors from the North Valley area. North Valley Hospital is the first hospital in Montana to be affiliated with Planetree. Planetree is a non-profit organization that provides education and information in a collaborative community of healthcare organizations, facilitating efforts to create patient centered care in healing environments. North Valley Hospital receives no tax support for its services. It recently announced that it will expand their Birth Center with funding the Building For Generations Capital Campaign.