Beaufort Memorial Streamlines MEDITECH Migration

Beaufort Memorial Hospital, an affiliate of Duke Medicine, is a full service health care facility in Beaufort, South Carolina. The Beaufort Memorial facility is licensed for 197 beds, staffed by medical personnel consisting of over 150 board-certified or board-eligible physicians. The largest hospital between Savannah, GA and Charleston, SC, Beaufort Memorial Hospital is situated on the Atlantic Intercoastal Waterway and is one of the few hospitals in the country with its own emergency dock. Beaufort Memorial has been a MEDITECH client running the MAGIC platform over 20 years and has relied on a variety of tools from various vendors to solve its integration challenges.

Beaufort Memorial had previously used a point to point approach for interfaces among its core MEDITECH systems and a range of ancillary modules and systems. This model created a confusing proliferation of rules and made changes to the systems involved extremely time consuming and inefficient. Physicians reported to IT staff that the computerized provider order entry (CPOE) did not improve workflows with the MAGIC platform and as a result, doctors had immense difficulty coordinating tests and treatments for patients. This dilemma was also one of the key issues that spurred the initiative to migrate to MEDITECH 6.0.

The variety of interfaces was creating an increasingly difficult challenge for Beaufort's IT department and it was determined that there was a need for a more streamlined approach. After conducting an integration assessment, it was determined that the organization would evaluate and purchase a new integration engine. The organization also made a strategic decision to contract with one integration technology partner who could also streamline and assist with the entire MEDITECH 6.0 migration, including workflows, dictionary maintenance and synchronization, and downtime reporting needs.

Initially, Beaufort Memorial expressed concern with migrating from an HCIS that staff had grown accustomed to with a completely new system. The hospital's goal was to use 6.0 to its full capacity and rework processes on a swift timetable. Also, there were concerns whether nurses would be able to adapt to the new system.