OREANDA-NEWS. January 22, 2015. McKesson announces the launch of Paragon® Community Plus, an innovative solution that combines its contemporary, Microsoft®-based Paragon electronic health record (EHR) solution with implementation, remote hosting and post go-live services.

This new offering is tailored to help community hospitals make a strategic shift from their current application to a modern, affordable solution, which includes clinical, financial and document management capabilities.

In today’s complex health IT environment, an organization’s IT systems and applications can directly impact its overall business health. Community hospitals are ready for the benefits of a modern and integrated EHR platform, yet they are often challenged by the lack of capital, human resources and time needed to switch and maintain their EHR solution. With this suite of healthcare IT solutions and services, McKesson provides a path for these organizations to make a strategic shift in their approach to IT.

The foundation of Paragon Community Plus is the fully integrated Paragon EHR solution with a single, fully-normalized database to help simplify data management. In addition to the application, the solution offers implementation services that leverage prebuilt content and recommended practices from similarly-sized hospitals, enabling an accelerated implementation timeline with fewer resource demands required. This approach helps deliver faster application deployment, which can lead to improved productivity and return on investment.

Remote hosting services are also included, providing 24x7x365 infrastructure support to help organizations improve system performance and the end-user experience. To round out the solution, all end-user and super-user training and materials are delivered by experienced McKesson professionals. Post go-live to Paragon, McKesson provides additional training to help reinforce newly learned workflows and application capabilities to help ensure effective knowledge transfer.

“In order to help community hospitals successfully shift their IT strategy in a timely and cost-effective manner, we packaged key McKesson services and solutions to help ensure the long-term success of the hospital’s application investment,” said Jim Pesce, president, Enterprise Information Solutions, McKesson Technology Solutions. “We’re committed to helping our customers achieve better business health along with better patient health outcomes, and Paragon Community Plus is a powerful solution that supports community hospitals as they achieve those objectives.”

The new offering is developed as part of McKesson’s Better Health 2020™ strategy, which is designed to help organizations reduce costs, optimize performance, ensure quality, coordinate care and support the transition to value based care. With Paragon Community Plus, community hospitals can align IT and strategic business goals and gain an affordable path to modernize IT and prepare for the future of healthcare.