15 rural hospitals sign for Expanse in 2025, maintaining community-focused care

CANTON, Mass.: Facing a challenging market defined by financial strain and rising consolidations, independent-minded rural health systems have bucked the trend by turning to MEDITECH Expanse to preserve the autonomy needed to support their communities. Fifteen rural hospitals opted for MEDITECH Expanse in 2025, joining an expanding group of over 250 rural sites operating the web- and cloud-native platform.

“Rural hospitals provide a safety net for nearly 20% of the US population, but several recent policy shifts - including Medicare reimbursement cuts, changes to bad debt reimbursement, and expiration of federal subsidies for the Affordable Care Act - are all threatening these organizations’ razor-thin margins,” said MEDITECH Chief Nursing Executive Cathy Turner, RN. “While these threats have pushed some hospitals towards consolidation, we’re committed to providing solutions and services to help rural health facilities stay self-governed and cater to the unique care needs of their local communities, avoiding the service reductions and cost increases often associated with mergers.”

A growing number of these rural hospitals have turned to MEDITECH’s cloud-native subscription model, MEDITECH as a Service. MaaS delivers an enterprise-level EHR without the significant upfront capital investment or extensive on-premise infrastructure, which is critical for organizations operating with thin margins. MaaS customers receive the same "full-scale" EHR used by larger organizations, rather than a "lite" or scaled-back version. Crucially, it also preserves their operational autonomy, allowing them to tailor workflows for the unique needs of their community instead of being locked into a rigid, one-size-fits-all system shared with other customers or through a larger host system.

Among the rural sites who selected MaaS in 2025 is Russell County Hospital, a 25-bed Critical Access Hospital in Russell Springs, KY.

“Russell County Hospital has a passion to be the best place to work and receive care, and it's by maintaining our independence that we remain nimble and ensure every decision we make is in the best interest of our patients and employees,” says CEO Scott Thompson. “Our decision to move to MEDITECH Expanse is a major win for our community as it enhances our ability to offer top-of-the-line services.”

He adds, “Our associates and providers benefit from one advanced and seamless platform across the hospital and clinics, ensuring quality and safety and leveling the playing field with much larger organizations in our area. The Expanse initiative aligns perfectly with our ongoing expansion project, which is set to double our square footage and provide the community with upgraded space, equipment, and expanded service lines.”

Union General Hospital, a community hospital and rural health clinic in Farmerville, Lousianna also selected MEDITECH Expanse in 2025 via the MaaS model. “After a careful review process, we selected MEDITECH because of their strong reputation, reliable service, and commitment to quality,” says CFO Brad Adcock. “Their team demonstrated a clear understanding of our needs and a willingness to work alongside us to ensure a smooth implementation. We believe this partnership will help us continue providing safe, efficient, and high-quality care to our community.”

Many rural health systems are leveraging advanced technology within MEDITECH Expanse - such as AI, analytics, and population health - while also preserving capital for essential community health initiatives:

• North Country Healthcare (Whitefield, NH) achieved CHIME Digital Health Most Wired Level 9 status for both acute and ambulatory for the 2nd consecutive year across its three Critical Access Hospitals.
• Bingham Healthcare (Blackfoot, ID) regularly exceeds national benchmarks in chronic care management and preventive screenings, recently seeing a 41.3% improvement in depression screening and 12.06% improvement in fall risk screening.
• Mile Bluff Medical Center (Mauston, WI) reduced clinician charting time by an average of 7.5 minutes per patient using MEDITECH’s AI -powered Expanse Navigator.
• SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) streamlined social determinants of health processes, maintained steady claims during their Expanse roll-out, and increased internal referrals by 10% with a new centralized referral center.

Connecting Care Through Intelligent Interoperability
Because rural patients often travel far or engage with disparate care networks, an interoperable EHR is fundamental for safe and comprehensive care. MEDITECH’s national interoperability network, Traverse Exchange, is uniquely positioned to support rural health systems. Traverse Exchange includes a powerful new consolidated patient summary that ensures all patient data is meaningful and accessible within clinicians’ native workflow, regardless of the health system where it originated, eliminating the need to merge with a larger health system simply for the purpose of sharing data.

While the industry anticipates further market consolidation, MEDITECH remains committed to developing the technologies and services essential for these health systems to stay independent, operate efficiently, and grow. These range from advanced interoperability and AI solutions to support clinicians and prevent denials to solutions like Expanse Outreach that enable health systems to open new and profitable diagnostic services.

“While mergers are often presented as a solution to financial distress, they typically result in a 20% to 30% increase in patient prices, and more than half of rural hospitals that merge experience a reduction in services within five years,” says MEDITECH Associate Vice President Rachel Wilkes. "Enabling rural health systems to preserve their independence is crucial for ensuring that underserved communities - which face higher rates of chronic disease, obesity, depression, and overdose - have equal access to the advanced technology and essential services they need to stay healthy.”

Sign up for MEDITECH’s Webinar, “How to Prepare for Healthcare’s Post-OBBBA Era”, on March 18, 12:00 p.m. EST. Learn more about MEDITECH’s approach to rural health and read MEDITECH Associate Vice President Rachel Wilkes’s blog on “What rural healthcare leaders need now.”

About MEDITECH
MEDITECH empowers healthcare organizations to expand their vision of what’s possible with Expanse, the intelligent EHR. Expanse provides a future-ready foundation for health systems of all sizes, leveraging the power of AI, cloud computing, and advanced interoperability to support world-class care in 29 countries and territories. Boost clinician satisfaction, patient engagement, and organizational efficiency. Visit ehr.meditech.com and follow us on YouTube, LinkedIn, X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

Fonte: Business Wire