CS 2.0 started with McKesson announcing that the Horizon suite of software used at VUMC would no longer be supported in 2018. We are using this announcement as a motivator to evaluate all our systems and plan for what our patients, our staff and our faculty need in the future.
We have many growth strategies for Vanderbilt University Medical Center, including our expanded Vanderbilt Health Affiliated Network to provide health care throughout the Southeast, and our enhanced My Health at Vanderbilt to offer online access to customized care for our patients. As staff and faculty, we want the best tools in place to help us provide next-generation care for patients.
Over the past three months, we have spoken with more than 700 VUMC staff and faculty about current and desired clinical system needs. We have heard people share what they like about our present systems and what they see as the need for more seamless communication between systems in CS 2.0. We led Discovery Listening Sessions to improve our communication efforts as we move through the transition process.
We are the at beginning of the proposal stage from vendors Epic and Cerner. Both are leaders in health care systems and both are capable of providing a strong foundational platform for VUMC to build innovative solutions. On July 7 and 9, both vendors presented their proposed solutions to case studies (scripts) we created. We have more than 150 people serving as VUMC representatives; listening, testing and evaluating these vendors’ responses.
Next week, both prospective vendors will receive a formal RFP (request for proposal) from us. We anticipate hearing and evaluating their responses by the middle of August.
Then, we will move into a deeper evaluation stage, including what it will take to implement and train over the next 2 years. As decisions are made, we will keep you updated.
During this process, we invite you to engage with us. Please email us at cs@vanderbilt.edu with questions, requests for copies of information to share with your team, or to ask for a CS 2.0 Ambassador to speak to your group.
— Kevin Johnson, M.D.
Chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics
