New Network Supports Large-Scale, Integrated, Standardized EMR System

About the Program

Category: Health (Best in Category)

Year: 2016

The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (DHS) is the second largest municipal health system in the nation, serving over 670,000 patients annually. However, the medical records systems DHS was using to track and deliver healthcare services were outdated and not aligned with the scope of its operations. DHS was using a collage of disparate systems that were both electronic and paper-based, split across six different silos, and neither standardized nor interoperable. When DHS’s IT team was tasked with complying with a key provision of the Affordable Care Act, which required the adoption of an electronic medical record (EMR) system, the County saw an opportunity for a complete system overhaul to better serve patients and caregivers. The existing DHS IT infrastructure could not support this move on its current network, so the department turned to Cisco to deploy a new Medical-Grade Network, which provided a complete end-to-end framework. With the new network in place, DHS designed and launched a new EMR system called ORCHID. ORCHID is a standardized, central, integrated system that allows for improved tracking of clinical care delivery and access to patient medical records. Overall, ORCHID is helping to improve consumer-centric healthcare delivery in Los Angeles County.