Mississippi Hospital Extends Epic EHR System to Nearby Medical Center

St. Dominic Hospital partnered with Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center (SMRMC), helping the medical center implement its Epic EHR system throughout the organization, according to a recent press release.

Since St. Dominic Hospital is a member of the multi-state Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System (FMOLHS), SMRMC will have full access to the health system’s integrated software benefits.

“St. Dominic’s has been a long-time neighbor to Southwest Health, and we’ve worked together on many collaborations for stroke, cardiovascular services, and more,” Scott Kashman, market president for St. Dominic Hospital, said in a press release.

“Supporting providers in central Mississippi allows patients and their physicians to maximize connectivity and medical resources while keeping patients in the McComb community,” Kashman added. “Technology has proven we can assure the right care at the right time completely customized to each patient’s need and clinical situation.”

This agreement aims to improve care coordination, patient registration, scheduling, and clinical integration, along with enhancing the financial and billing processes, SMRMC said.

“As a Medical Center, we are excited to transition to the Epic electronic medical record platform,” Kevin Richardson, MD, chief medical officer of SMRMC, said. “This integrated system will allow us to access critical data at the point of care and improve communication among members of the healthcare team.”

In addition, patients of SMRMC will gain access to their personal health information using Epic Systems MyChart.

The online patient portal will allow patients to view test results, send and receive secure messages from their provider, manage appointments, pay bills, and request prescription refills online.

“Southwest Health has enjoyed a successful partnership with St. Dominic’s for many years on a number of service lines,” said Charla Rowley, CEO at SMRMC. “With the addition of Epic software through this agreement, we can provide our physicians a product they want and need to ease their day-to-day integration of electronic medical records.”

“Easing their ability to communicate more with patients and create more personalized care data for each patient here at home is our goal,” Rowley added.

Epic Systems is leading the way among EHR vendors as it is the most widely used system. As of publishing time, over 250 million patients are connected through Epic Systems, making it the largest EHR vendor in the country.

In June 2022, Atlanta-based healthcare system Piedmont successfully launched an Epic EHR implementation at its five newest hospitals.

With this Epic Systems implementation, Piedmont said it hopes to improve interoperability and care coordination at these facilities.