IPeople was thrilled to be back at the annual MUSE International conference after a two-year break due to the COVID pandemic. This year was particularly exciting because IPeople would be celebrating our 20th year serving the MEDITECH community.
We were excited to celebrate with the MUSE community with a few special events. Along with one of our vendor partners, InstaMed, a JPMorgan company; we co-hosted the MUSE welcome reception as well as a VIP customer appreciation event where hosted a private tour of AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys.
We loved having the opportunity to partner with MUSE in so many ways in our hometown at such a fantastic location. As I reflect on the conference there were a few keys that seemed to be very impactful.
Takeaway #1
There’s nothing quite like a MUSE conference. There are a variety of other conferences for the medical health record community, such as HIMSS and CHIME, which had events leading up to MUSE. This MUSE conference reinforced that the MUSE community is truly unique. The intimate nature of the conference made for fantastic interaction.
Every vendor and every hospital attendee that you run across has a shared interest in the advancement of the MEDITECH platform. MUSE, more than other conferences I have attended, had a true feeling that we are all a part of the same team and moving in the same direction. This was evident by the number of brilliant conversations we had with both hospital attendees as well as vendor attendees not only in the conference hall, but in the four packed educational sessions we spoke at. Whether it was at the Texan Station after the activities wrapped up for the day or even the elevators; conversations were positive and productive. It was quite evident that after a long and unplanned absence from the MUSE conference, everyone was so excited to be back.
Takeaway #2
Through the many conversations we had with hospitals at the conference, the conversational themes seemed to lead down the same road – MEDITECH has hit a home run with their newest EXPANSE platform. The MUSE community is finding ways to migrate from their existing MAGIC, Client/Server and 6.0x platforms and move to EXPANSE. One thing that really stood out to me, however, was the lack of education around what exactly a system migration entails for the hospitals and their staff.
When moving from MAGIC or Client/Server to EXPANSE, there is a subset of data that can be migrated to the new platform, typically not enough to satisfy a release of information request if the hospital is required to provide one. This requires the hospital to either maintain their legacy platform or to hire a third-party vendor to archive their legacy data. If the hospital selects to leave the legacy EHR system “on” and maintain it they are faced with: resource issues, additional costs, and over time – lack of expertise in maintaining these aging technologies. BUT, if they choose to seek out a vendor to archive it the challenge becomes – due to how EXPANSEive (no pun intended) these legacy systems can be, especially the MEDITECH MAGIC platform, there are so many “gotchas”. Can the vendor selected by the hospital extract discrete data? Are they truly grabbing everything? How can I be sure? What about magic .MTA files? Archived images to Valco, OMTOOL, MedScan? MEDITOR files? Can’t I just use my MEDITECH MAGIC DR?
Archiving is a regular hot topic of conversations with hospital CIOs and IT Directors. The MUSE conference was no different, the same questions and concerns surfaced at the MUSE conference with hospitals that were needing to plan a system archive. Unfortunately, many CIOs and IT Directors were left wondering why our conversation was the first that they were hearing of these additional items. Without proper archiving the requirements for a release of information request become very cumbersome, as some hospitals have experienced.
As an industry leader in the MEDITECH space, specifically for system archiving, these conversations are some of my favorite. I am fiercely passionate about educating the hospital IT staff and equipping them with the tools to have access to the data that they need.
Takeaway #3
MEDITECH had a HUGE presence at this year’s MUSE International conference. The keynote speakers for this year were Michelle O’Connor and Helen Waters, CEO and COO of MEDITECH respectively who spoke on the transformation of the company by listening to it’s customer base.
The keynote, hosted by MUSE CEO Alan Sherbinin, was absolutely fantastic. If you were unable to participate live or have not yet gotten to view it, head to the MUSE website to watch it.
Perhaps in part to double down on being accessible and listening to their MEDITECH community; it was not uncommon to see Michelle O’Connor walking up and down the aisles of the tradeshow convention center talking to vendors and to hospital attendees. While this level of direct access to top level MEDITECH executives may not be a common occurrence at every MUSE conference, this was refreshing and exciting to see the willingness to interact and hear the stories of the MEDITECH community.
In addition, at the MUSE International 2022 conference, MEDITECH announced a partnership program which they have named the Greenfield Alliance. This partnership will allow vendors to obtain a level of legitimacy from MEDITECH directly by qualifying to be a MEDITECH Innovator, Accelerator or Collaborator. This will allow hospitals to be more selective when choosing a vendor to work with as well as allowing the vendors to have more direct access to building turnkey solutions working directly with MEDITECH EXPANSE. The launch of the Greenfield Alliance is welcome change to see the willingness to embrace the vendor community and I am excited to see to how it plays out.
Takeaway #4
One of the most admiral qualities of the MEDITECH community is its willingness to engage with one another to solve challenges and share best practices.
As part of our celebration of serving the MEDITECH community for 20 years, we wanted to spend time with our extended IPeople family. What better way to celebrate than a sunset boat cruise on Lake Grapevine, which the Gaylord convention center overlooks. IPeople rented out private transportation and escorted our guests to the dock. As we prepared to depart on the lake cruise we passed out drinks, as we were doing so, I couldn’t help but notice all of the collaboration occurring before the cruise even started. We had a diverse set of customers on the boat – hospitals from Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec, Texas, California, South Dakota, North and South Carolina just to name a few.
Prior to this event, none of them had ever met each other before – yet everyone was introducing themselves, talking about their roles within the organization, what version of MEDITECH they were on and what their biggest challenges are. To see that level of collaboration firsthand was extremely refreshing and while I know this occurs daily at each hospital organization within its own sphere of influence – to see them reach across country and state lines sharing best practices is something that does not happen near as much as it should. This again speaks to the intrinsic and unique value that MUSE International provides by bringing in such a diverse user base together in such a way.
Takeaway #5
The MEDITECH ecosystem is growing. Hospitals and vendors alike.
After ten years in the business personally, there was one thing that MUSE International 2022 showcased over previous years. MEDITECH is not going away anytime soon. Quite the opposite; this MEDITECH community is thriving.
According to an article posted by EHR Intelligence on May 2nd, 2022
MEDITECH boasted a 38% increase in retention for 2021 versus the same period a year prior. In addition,
MEDITECH gained 18 hospitals and 1,077 acute beds in 2021.
There was an undeniable feeling of electricity in the air during the conference. MEDITECH’s community is excited with EXPANSE and the direction company is headed. That, coupled with MEDITECH’s determination to grow the overall ecosystem for the customer and vendor benefit as stated through the keynote speech as well as the Greenfield Alliance makes me proud to be part of that ecosystem and excited to see what the future holds for all of us.
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The opportunity to reconnect at MUSE was amazing.
If we didn't have the opportunity to talk and do a demo, click the link here to set up and demo and see for yourself why IPeople is an industry leader in functional workflow during your MEDITECH downtime.
