Mississippi Health System Selects Mercy to Help Install Epic

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Jun 05, 2018, 07:00 ET

ST. LOUIS, June 5, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- North Mississippi Health Services (NMHS), which serves 730,000 patients in 24 counties in north Mississippi and northwest Alabama, has selected Mercy Technology Services to help install Epic as its enterprise ambulatory electronic health record (EHR). Learn more about MTS's Epic implementation services at MercyTechnology.net.

Headquartered in Tupelo, Mississippi, NMHS primarily serves patients through its flagship hospital, North Mississippi Medical Center, the largest private, not-for-profit hospital in Mississippi. It also offers care at five community hospitals and through North Mississippi Medical Clinics, a regional network of primary and specialty clinics, nursing homes, telehealth services and a comprehensive portfolio of managed care plans.

The health system selected Epic's EHR as its ambulatory system. Thanks to Epic's tight integration of primary, specialty and clinic care, more than 800 employed and affiliated providers will be connected on a single EHR for better coordination of care throughout its clinically integrated network.

"It was time to replace multiple systems that caregivers had to bounce between, which was the cause of serious frustration and slowdown," said Jim Weldon, NMHS's chief information officer (CIO). "A new strategic tool like Epic can do so much to improve access to and help in the sharing of patient information, as well as support point of care decision making."

Through its consulting role in NMHS's Project Connect, Mercy Technology Services will provide project leadership and proven methodology from more than 50 previous installations, Epic module expertise, revenue cycle support, training and go-live support.

"I've worked with many vendors and consultants in my day," Weldon said. "With Mercy, the team has the capabilities and bench strength, but they have something others don't; Mercy is a provider just like us. They run a health system, they engage physicians and they care for patients. Partnering with another provider organization with Mercy's depth and success is really smart for us."

"Epic really shines in connecting touch points and improving care throughout a health system's service area," said Gil Hoffman, Mercy's CIO. "We're happy to share lessons and stretch Mercy's mission to Mississippi to help NMHS bring about positive change in their communities."

In future phases of the project, NMHS will extend Epic to regional providers who aren't yet on a shared electronic record. "This way, we'll have everybody talking through one system to raise the bar on patient care," said Weldon.

SOURCE Mercy