Abstract: Competition between health systems often precludes collaboration, but when patients obtain their care from adjacent health systems it is in the best interest of individual patients and their providers for separate health systems to work together (where allowed) to deliver care as seamlessly as possible.
In July 2018 we brought together in person, the CMIOs and Associate CMIOs from each of the nine health systems in the Philadelphia area that share the same EHR vendor, for a bi-monthly meeting to work together on solving mutual problems using our EHRs. We have successfully collaborated on numerous problems since then including more open data sharing, helping each other implement new EHR features and complying with new state and CMS regulations.

Describe the new knowledge and additional skills the participant will gain after attending your presentation.: Participants will understand the value of active collaboration with neighboring health systems on issues related the EHR. While we had the good fortune to have 9 regional health systems using the same EHR vendor, this model could work even across different EHR vendors. Our cooperation allowed us to be better prepared for implementation of new state laws and more cognizant of issues related to new EHR features and updates.
In between meetings our collaboration has created open channels of communication between CMIOs so that questions that arise can be sent to the e-group of other CMIOs and assistant CMIOs for immediate feedback. If you reach out to your EHR vendor and locate the nearest few health systems that share your EHR, you will see how fruitful this type of collaboration can be.

Authors:

Joel Betesh (Presenter)
University of Pensylvania

John Howell, University of Pennsylvania