Aspen (Colo.) Valley Health has launched a partnership with another Colorado hospital to expand access to Epic’s electronic health record platform for rural providers while maintaining local governance.
Through Epic’s Community Connect program, Aspen Valley Health will extend its EHR system to Heart of the Rockies Regional Medical Center in Salida, Colo. The Epic platform will replace multiple existing systems at the hospital and create a single EHR spanning the organization.
The collaboration is the first of its kind led by a rural critical access hospital, according to a March 16 news release from Aspen Valley Health.
Aspen Valley Health operates its own Epic instance and said its version of the platform was designed for the workflows and staffing realities common in small rural hospitals.
Traditionally, Epic Community Connect agreements involve large health systems hosting the technology while smaller hospitals join that environment. Aspen Valley Health’s approach reverses that structure by positioning a rural hospital as the host for other rural providers.
In addition to shared EHRs, participating hospitals will be able to collaborate in areas such as cybersecurity, analytics, compliance expertise and vendor partnerships.
Aspen Valley Health expects additional rural hospitals to join the collaborative model in the coming years.
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