Piedmont Healthcare and Shepherd Center, both based in Atlanta, established a hospital-to-hospital EHR hosting agreement on the Epic platform, a first in Georgia.
Per the agreement, Shepherd Center will be brought onto Piedmont's Epic EHR. Patients will have a single record within Shepherd, Piedmont as well as other organizations that use the Epic platform. Shepherd Center will be able to share clinical information in real time.
The implementation will begin in early 2018 and is expected to be complete by February 2019, when Shepherd will begin using Piedmont's EHR.
"Shepherd Center is excited about the Epic Community Connect partnership with Piedmont," said Sarah Morrison, president and CEO of Shepherd Center. "With more than 50 percent of our patients requiring surgical or other acute medical care procedures at Piedmont Atlanta Hospital, about 80 percent of our consulting physicians being Piedmont physicians, and more than 60 percent of our top referral sources already using Epic, this partnership makes strategic sense."