Given that September was national suicide prevention month, LCMHS Zero Suicide Committee provided a series of events to further the word on prevention and continue end stigma about Suicide.  The term Zero Suicide is fairly straightforward in that our community partners are implementing ideas on how to lower the risk of a suicide in our area, with a goal of having zero, or no suicides.  Our effort in recognition included a variety of offerings:

What is the UEMR?
The UEMR, or Unified Electronic Medical Records, is an ongoing collaboration between 4 designated agencies, UCS, NCSS, WCMHS and LCMHS in which the agencies are investing on a common software platform for their medical records.

Why we are doing this project?
We have identified that LCMHS’ current electronic medical records (EMR) is outdated, was in the prospect of imminent discontinuation and we had limited support from the vendor, who stopped selling this software years ago. The current EMR system also does not support modern data and health information exchange and we needed a data-driven approach. So we combined forces with 3 other designated agencies that were in similar dilemmas and launched the project in early 2018. By investing on this project, the 4 agencies, now called The Core 4, are taking the opportunity to bring systems that support our businesses into future technologies.

What are we doing?
We are creating and implementing a technology system that supports our growth and continues business improvement through automation and data sharing. When completed, expect the software to do the “grunt” work so staff will do what they do best: help people live productive, self-directed lives.

Where are we today?
We have identified agencies with the same goal (Core 4), and have selected and enter and agreement with the vendor that provided the best product for the agencies. We have established teams to work through different phases of the project. We have essentially replaced all of the existing networks, servers, and connections for the entire technology infrastructure of the consortia, and moved to a hybrid data center which will include using cloud technologies, such as Microsoft Office 365 and the Google Cloud Environment, as well as installed rock solid WiFi at ALL of our locations and replaced staff devices across units, including mobile equipment. The Steering Board guides the configuration and implementation of the systems by supplying subject matter expertise and protects the integrity of business to ensure its needs are met by the systems and software, which is being built and expect to start rolling out to the first agency by March 2020. We are currently working on training and maintenance plans as well, and expect to have the project fully implemented across all agencies by the Fall of 2020.