Michigan Merger Upgrades Hospital's HIT Outlook

By Karla Paris

Facility and technology improvements will become a reality with new expansion plan.

It was two months ago Beaumont Health System completed its affiliation agreement with Botsford Health Care and Oakwood Healthcare to combine operations and form a new organization – Beaumont Health. Federal and state regulatory officials reviewed and approved the affiliation and granted tax-exempt status as a new $3.8 billion not-for-profit health care organization.

Now, Beaumont Health is announcing a $160 million expansion on its Farmington Hills campus. The osteopathic hospital plans to begin construction next summer after receiving expected certificate-of-need approval in the spring from the Michigan Department of Community Health.

In a statement, Gene Michalski, CEO of Beaumont Health, said Beaumont larger size will enable affiliated hospitals to more easily embark on facility and technology improvements. “As a larger organization, we can better fund projects benefiting those who receive care and deliver care at Beaumont Health,” Michalski said.

In 2016, Botsford plans to purchase an Epic Corp. electronic health record (EHR) system to become fully integrated with Oakwood and Beaumont's Epic systems. Botsford currently uses McKesson's Paragon EHR.

By purchasing Epic’s EHR system, Botsford will have the ability to span hospital departments and roles connecting each member of the care team to a single record and embedded clinical intelligence. It will ensure clinical decisions are based on the most up-to-date information and promote care that is safe and well-coordinated.

For every user, active clinical decision support and role-based workflow support aids Botsford staff in the decision making process. At the same time, the system can conform in important ways to the preferences of Botsford’s departments and even single users.

Botsford Hospital is a 330-bed health care facility serving Michigan communities in southern Oakland and western Wayne Counties including Farmington, Farmington Hills, Livonia, Redford, Dearborn Heights, Detroit, Southfield, West Bloomfield, Novi, Northville, Plymouth, Lyon Township, and Wixom.

Each year, Botsford treats 16,000 inpatients and more than 60,000 emergency and trauma patients with 2,500 employees, 600 physicians, and 300 volunteers.

SOURCE: Beaumount Health System