NH Critical Access Hospital Taps MEDITECH Web-Based EHR Platform

Speare Memorial Hospital, a New Hampshire-based critical access hospital (CAH), announced it will integrate MEDITECH Expanse EHR, the vendor’s web-based EHR platform.

Speare Memorial, a former MEDITECH MAGIC client, declared it will make its return to the EHR vendor to replace its current EHR system after it joined a group of healthcare facilities and migrated to another EHR platform. Hospital leaders said they prioritized advanced health IT and financial responsibility, which made it an easy choice to tap MEDITECH again.

“We had a large cross-section of staff involved in the EHR selection process, many of whom had prior experience with MEDITECH,” Travis Boucher, chief financial officer at Speare Memorial, said in a statement.

“In the end, they were impressed by just how far MEDITECH has come with Expanse, and determined that it would best meet our current needs as well as help us adapt to evolving health care trends. We know we will be able to leverage this system to reach our future goals, using telehealth and population health,” Boucher continued.

With the Expanse EHR implementation, the health system hopes to see increased interoperability. This will ideally improve patient safety, boost communication, and enhance patient care. Hospital leaders also noted the vendor’s latest Expanse Oncology and Labor and Delivery solutions as added benefits.

“Our physicians and nurses are looking forward to the mobile technology and personalized web-based workflows,” said Boucher. “We are also excited to offer our patients access to self-scheduling, pre-registration, self-check in, and virtual visits through the patient portal.”

Small hospitals like Speare Memorial often have limited budgets and resources. The organization said it needed to choose the best EHR vendor to minimize its unique issues and help maintain valuable resources. The hospital’s existing relationship with the vendor also helped facilitate the decision.

MEDITECH users said the vendor addresses many organizational challenges and provides the best practices to small hospitals, which ultimately leads to high EHR vendor satisfaction, according to a recent KLAS Performance Report.

KLAS surveyed 180 respondents from small community hospitals to evaluate the top EHR challenges and which EHR vendor best practices help reduce these challenges. Consistent satisfaction was a top indicator of EHR vendor success.

MEDITECH topped the overall performance score distribution chart. Thirty percent of MEDITECH respondents were very satisfied, 57 percent were satisfied, and only 13 percent were dissatisfied with the tool.

“MEDITECH customers say strong collaboration from the vendor helps address challenges,” KLAS explained. “The most successful MEDITECH customers budget for training and additional implementation resources to help with interfacing.”

Although MEDITECH ranked the highest, customers still reported challenges. They noted slow product development, poor user interface for patient-facing tools, and the high cost of MEDITECH Expanse for its legacy customers.

However, its respondents said the vendor has a deep focus on EHR training. MEDITECH helps its customers invest in health IT resources to optimize solutions while also budgeting for training and implementation, respondents said.

“With the release of Expanse, customers feel MEDITECH has provided updated technology and instituted a more prescriptive approach to implementations and guidance, leading to MEDITECH customers being the most likely to report satisfaction,” wrote KLAS.

Furthermore, MEDITECH was named 2021 Best in KLAS top performer in Acute Care EMR (Community Hospital), Home Health EHR (small 1-200 average daily census), and Patient Accounting & Patient Management (Community Hospital).