Critical Access

Scenario:

Bedford Hospital is a 25-bed hospital in rural Pennsylvania. They have recently completed the process of being designated by CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid) a CAH (critical access hospital). Prior to this designation they were part of a large academic health center but have since divested from that health center. As part of that agreement their current electronic health record contract, which is with Cerner Corporation as part of that medical center’s enterprise agreement, will be expiring in 24 months. Currently all aspects of Cerner’s inpatient product are implemented including documentation, orders, decision support and electronic meds administration. Cerner’s registration admissions discharge scheduling and patient identification products are also part of this agreement as are the laboratory radiology and pharmacy systems.While Bedford Hospital was part of the academic center the Cerner product suite was financially supported as part of the overall corporate structure. As part of the divestiture agreement, the academic center has agreed to support Bedford's Cerner systems in total for a 24-month period, absorbing the Cerner software and enterprise hardware costs in that timeframe. Bedford Hospital is taking financial responsibility for three IT staff and day-to-day IT costs such as networks devices email and Internet costs. The CEO and CFO of Bedford Hospital have pulled together an interdisciplinary team to examine the technology options for Bedford Hospital after this 24-month period.