Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare implements new EHR

The Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System, a California-based medical community, has implemented a new patient management and electronic health record system.

The new system, from e-MD, is expected to streamline SVMH’s clinical operations and enable physicians to focus more time on patients and less on administrative tasks.

“Salinas Valley is committed to staying on the leading edge of technology in an effort to offer patients the best care possible. Implementing an EHR that will allow our physicians to become meaningful users of health information technology is part of that commitment,” said Sam Downing, SVMH's president and chief executive officer. “We needed a fully-featured EHR that was easy to use, could be implemented quickly, and (is) fully integrated with a robust practice management system.”

SVMH officials stated that prior experiences with other EHR systems made had made it important to lay down goals and specific requirements of the new system. Interoperability and program flexibility were high on the priority lists of the multi-site health system.

The system started with a pilot program to test the systems capabilities. Officials said that after a successful test at an urgent care clinic, the system moved for a more widespread adoption, deploying it at 12 more of its urgent care facilities in locations from San Jose to Greenfield.

The EHR adoption will be supplemented by the Stark Safe Harbor Anti-Trust Exception, which will cover a portion of the costs, training and support expenses to Salinas Valley physicians. SVMH expects to help these physicians meet the criteria specified in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.