The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Remaining an independent hospital system
By Katherine Nettles
Gunnison Valley Health (GVH) has partnered with UC Health for a specific technology upgrade to make patient health record access easier, a transition it has been working on since last spring and which will go live in May 2025.
GVH CEO Jason Amrich confirmed the partnership this month but addressed what he referred to as misinformation in the community regarding the situation, and emphasized that GVH is not coming under the UC Health system as a whole.
“GVH is transitioning to a new electronic health record (EHR) system called Epic,” wrote Amrich in an email to the Crested Butte News. He said this will not affect the hospital system’s independence and structure.
“Due to our small size, the significant cost of Epic, and the complexity of implementing such an advanced system, we are partnering with UCHealth through the Epic Community Connect program,” wrote Amrich. “This partnership allows us to use UCHealth’s instance of Epic while maintaining our own governance and legal structure. In short, we become an Epic affiliate of UCHealth, but our identity and autonomy as GVH remain unchanged. Through this affiliation, we gain access to robust tools and resources that will ultimately improve patient care and community health services.”
Amrich explains that implementing Epic includes more user-friendly patient portals that will allow patients to access their health and appointment information in one location. It will also mean online scheduling capability and account and bill pay capability within the patient portal.
“The implementation of Epic as Gunnison Valley Health’s unified electronic health record will enhance patient care by streamlining access to medical information. Providers can instantly view comprehensive health histories, test results and treatment plans, reducing delays and ensuring accurate diagnoses. This seamless integration improves safety by minimizing the risk of errors and supports continuity of care by allowing every member of a patient’s care team to stay aligned, no matter the clinic location. Epic’s multitude of features also empower patients to engage more actively in their healthcare journey through user-friendly patient portals,” he described.
Details of the new patient portal will be finalized in 2025, and Amrich says that GVH will have more information to share about the new features and explaining how to sign up and use the new portal as the implementation draws closer.
