Mercy Healthcare - Network Plan
1. Goals and objectives of the proposed network
Mercy Health (formerly Catholic Health Partners) is a not-for-profit health care system headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is the largest health system in Ohio and one of the largest nonprofit health systems in the United States. Mercy Health employs more than 32,000 employees in more than 450 health facilities, including 23 hospitals in Ohio and Kentucky. It is the 4th largest Employer in Ohio.
Mercy Health serves seven markets: Cincinnati, Toledo, Youngstown, Lima, Lorain and Springfield in Ohio and Paducah in Kentucky. The major markets are Cincinnati and Toledo.
Mercy Health began serving Cincinnati neighborhoods for more than 160 years ago and has expanded to multiple award-winning hospitals that provide access to leading physicians, advanced technology, experienced and compassionate caregivers, and a wide range of care. Services include care for all aspects of life from maternity to senior care, primary and specialty care physician practices, outpatient centers, social service agencies and fitness centers to a variety of outreach programs.
The Main Hospitals in the Cincinnati area are: • Jewish Hospital • Mercy Hospital Anderson • Mercy Hospital Fairfield • Mercy Clermont • Mercy West Hospital
Mercy Health was named one of the Top 15 Health Systems in the Nation by Truven Health Analytics (2013 and 2014). Anderson Hospital and Fairfield Hospital are rated among the 100 Top Hospitals in the nation by Truven Health Analytics (2014). Fairfield Hospital is rated nationally among the Top 50 Hospitals for Cardiovascular Care by Thomson Reuters (2011).
Toledo is the other major area served by Mercy with a seven hospital system and a preferred provider of healthcare services for the 20-county area in Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan.
The Main Hospitals in the Toledo area are: • Mercy Hospital of Defiance • Mercy Hospital of Tiffin • Mercy Hospital of Willard • St. Anne Mercy Hospital • St. Charles Mercy Hospital • St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center • St. Vincent Mercy Children's Hospital
Our goal of this program is to connect all the remote sites to the hospital's information systems to provide a central source for patient information. Connecting the clinics to the hospital's network allows the clinics to access all of its resources including primary EMR applications, current and NextGen information services.
Our long range vision of Mercy Health is to enable a set of standard telehealth connection services that will interconnect throughout the region and facilitate any healthcare location in the state to share one or more telehealth services with any other healthcare location within the region and ultimately to interconnect with other health care providers on a national basis.
This RFP addresses the telecommunications and network maintenance to interconnect the main hospital and data center and the remote hospitals and multiple clinics and doctor’s offices in the area as described in the Background and Goals Section.
2. Sites that are participating in this consortium are:
HCP NO. Site Name HCP Address 17660 MERC - Tiffin Occupational Health 437 W. Market Street, Tiffin, Ohio 44883 18508 MERC - Southampton Memorial Hospital 100 Fairview Drive, Franklin, Virginia 23851 22011 MERC - Bon Secours St. Francis Charleston 2095 Henry Teckenburg Drive, Hospital Charleston, South Carolina 29414 22040 MERC - Bon Secours St. Francis Downtown 1 St Francis Drive, Greenville, South Carolina 29601 36028 MERC - Roper St. Francis Mount Pleasant 3500 US Route 17, Mount Hospital Pleasant, South Carolina 29466 49103 MERC - Bon Secours Urbanna Medical 390 Virginia Street Suite A, Center Urbanna, Virginia 23175 54662 MERC - Bon Secours Aylett Medical Center 1041 Sharon Road Suite 205, King William, Virginia 23086 69574 MERC - Bluffton Family Medicine 204 N. Main Street, Bluffton, Ohio 45817 69612 MERC - Southside Regional Medical Center 200 Medical Park Boulevard, Petersburg, Virginia 23805 69618 MERC - Roper Hospital 316 Calhoun Street, Charleston, South Carolina 29401 69678 MERC - Bon Secours Magellan Admin 8580 Magellan Parkway, Center Richmond, Virginia 23227 69679 MERC - Bon Secours St. Francis Eastside 125 Commonwealth Drive, Greenville, South Carolina 29615 69792 MERC - Perrysburg Hospital 12623 Eckel Junction Road, Perrysburg, Ohio 43551 69795 MERC - Southern Virginia Regional Medical 727 North Main Street, Emporia, Center Virginia 23847 69974 MERC - RevConnect Data Center 1200 Brookfield Parkway, Greenville, South Carolina 29607
3. Strategy for aggregating the specific needs of health care providers (HCPs), including providers that serve rural areas, within a state or region
Most of the remote clinics are small, so providing a separate EMR application for each site would not be cost effective, and would make the sharing of this information with other health care providers difficult. By sharing the hospital's resources, each clinic and remote site will have access to a much broader array of information services. 4. Strategy for leveraging existing technology to adopt the most efficient and cost- effective means of connecting those providers
The clinics already have network equipment to interconnect PCs and printers. By using high speed connections and standard network equipment, Mercy Healthcare will be able to connect the PCs and printers in the remote offices to the hospital's existing network. This will allow access to servers and applications in the hospital as well as cloud based applications available on the internet. The hospital already has an extensive network of leased facilities, which interconnect connects the Hospital and remote clinics. 5. Discussion of how the broadband services will be used to improve or provide health care delivery
There are multiple Data Centers in the Mercy Healthcare network. The hospital and clinics have direct access to the internet for cloud based services and dedicated access for such services as radiology and patient records. Remote locations are connected using mostly a combination of ISDN PRIs and high speed Ethernet internet connections. This network will support applications such-as:
• Interactive video conferencing and telemedicine.
• Streaming video for distance learning and continuing education.
• Enabling medical record queries from multiple sources.
• Transmission and receipt of imaging files.
• Web-based collaboration tools for meetings and peer-to-peer consultation and interaction and for hospital administration.
• Access to internet based resources for staff and patient education.
The hospitals and all clinics and locations will benefit from these high speed connections. Facilities will be upgraded and expanded, as needed for growth and new services beyond what’s mentioned above. 6. Discussion of previous experience in developing and managing health IT (including telemedicine) programs Gil Cantillo, Enterprise Director, Information Services and Consortium Leader will oversee this project. Gil Cantillo, Enterprise Director, Information Services, and has been extensively involved in IT services and projects for Bon Secours and Mercy.
7. A project management plan outlining the project's leadership and management structure (a work plan, schedule, and budget) • Gil Cantillo, Enterprise Director, Information Services and Consortium Leader, will be the project Manager.
• Schedule: - Bid process to last 28 days with earliest contract selection date on the 29th day - Implementation of service is expected to take place within 60 days of the Allowable Contract Selection Date
• Budget: -Telecommunication Services - Annual Cost ~ $4,000,000. -65% of these costs will be covered under the Healthcare Connect Fund, while the remaining balance will be paid out of the hospital's income.