HEART TO HEART HOSPICE
" Once you accept that and you embrace the concept of living life every day to the fullest , there ' s this huge sense of relief ," she says . " If we changed the word " hospice " to " relief ", maybe more people would see it for what it is ."
Evolving healthcare The US healthcare system is currently undergoing huge changes with valuebased reimbursement models and the introduction of patient risk stratification which directly ties into palliative and hospice care . " Hospice , because of the palliative care component , is now being invited to join the care continuum to assist in the care of the seriously ill patient population ," Abercrombie says . " This is exciting , because we have a chance to positively affect a seriously ill person ’ s life by providing palliative care long before hospice services are needed with the expectation of improving their quality of life .
“ Short term acute care facilities in addition to provider groups have been using electronic medical records ( EMRs ) for many years now " Abercrombie says , " The reason for the digital transformation began with Kelly Mitchell , CEO of Heart to Heart Hospice . Kelly saw a need for us to have an EMR so we could join the care continuum on a technological level .“
Abercrombie was hired in 2016 when the hospice began its digital transformation . " We had to start at the very bottom ," he says . " The entire infrastructure had to be replaced to support the business and technology vision Kelly had . " Throughout 2016 , we replaced the network and re-platformed the data center with enterprise-class core switching , data storage , and a high availability VMware environment . At that time , we were about 29 sites , but by the end of this year , we ' ll be a little over 50 . So we had to build a scalable , flexible , secure infrastructure to be able to support the growth of the company ." “ The
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