Cerner Corporation announced today that it will work with HealthSouth Corporation, a company focused solely on inpatient rehabilitative care, to digitize care processes across the company’s 97 inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs) in 26 states.
“Cerner was selected because of its complete and scalable electronic health record (EHR) offering that spans the entire service line with our hospitals,” said Rusty Yeager, HealthSouth chief information officer. “Implementing this system in our hospitals will allow clinicians, therapists and physicians to spend more time focusing on patients and their recovery.”
“As health care reform continues, creating meaningful interoperability between acute care and post-acute care environments will become increasingly important,” said Zane Burke, Cerner executive vice president. “Many of HealthSouth’s hospital referrals come from acute care hospitals. Digitizing care in HealthSouth’s hospitals creates the potential to link its hospitals with the acute care facilities, enabling a more efficient and higher quality patient care process.”
Cerner will implement a number of solutions to digitize patient care and improve efficiency in HealthSouth’s hospitals. This includes creating a centralized EHR for patients, ensuring the right people have access to the right information at the right time to improve care. Other solutions that will be implemented include computerized physician order entry (CPOE) and a closed loop medication administration system. Cerner will also provide application management and remote hosting services. A pilot site, Rehabilitation Hospital of Northern Virginia, is currently live with a core suite of Cerner® solutions.
