VistA and 'Open Source' EHR Systems in Kansas & the Great Plains States

The installation and use of 'open source' electronic health record (EHR) systems have continued to spread across Kansas and other states across the U.S.  See the map of healthcare facilities running some variant of the open source VistA electronic health record (EHR) system in Kansas and other states in the Great Plains.

The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat lands in the U.S. lying west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains. The heart of the Great Plains states include North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas, as well as parts of Colorado, Montana, Oklahoma, and Wyoming.

In the state of Kansas, all of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare facilities are continuing to use the well known, award winning VistA System. VA healthcare facilities using VistA include the following VA hospitals, outpatient clinics, and nursing homes.:

• Leavenworth VA Medical Center
• Topeka VA Medical Center
• Chanute VA Clinic
• Emporia VA Clinic
• Ft Scott VA Clinic
• Ft. Dodge VA Clinic
• Garnett VA Clinic
• Hays VA Clinic
• Holton VA Clinic
• Hutchinson VA Clinic
• Johnson County VA Clinic
• Junction City VA Clinic
• Lawrence VA Clinic
• Liberal VA Clinic
• Louisburg-Paola VA Clinic
• Seneca VA Clinic
• Parsons VA Clinic
• Salina VA Clinic
• Wyandotte VA Clinic
• Wichita VA Medical Center (VAMROC)

The following Indian Health Service (IHS) or Native American Tribal healthcare facilities in Kansas are currently using a variant of the VistA system known as RPMS:

• White Cloud IHS Clinic          
• Haskell IHS Clinic
• Hunter Health Urban Clinic
• Prairie Band Potawatomi Tribal Clinic

The following are other Federal, State, and local government healthcare facilities in Kansas currently using other derivatives of the VistA system, e.g. CHCS, OpenVistA, vxVistA, WorldVistA.

• Fort Riley Army Community Hospital
• 22nd Medical Group - McConnell AFB
• U.S. Army Health Center - Fort Leavenworth

See the map of all healthcare facilities running some variant of the open source VistA electronic health record (EHR) system in Kansas, other states across the U.S., and in other countries around the world. VistA, or one of its derivatives, is one of the most widely used EHR systems in the country.

Other popular 'open source' EHR systems in use across Kansas and the Great Plains include OpenEMR and OpenMRS. It has been estimated that there are more than 5,000 installations of OpenEMR in physician offices and other small healthcare facilities across the U.S. serving more than 30 million patients. Further, conservative estimates by the OpenEMR Organization (OEMR)  indicate that OpenEMR is installed in over 15,000 healthcare facilities around the world, translating into more than 45,000 practitioners using the system serving approximately 90 million patients.  As of 2012, OpenMRS was in use at over 100 facilities in more than 30 countries and had been used to record over 2 million patient records around the world. See the map of OpenMRS installations.

Don't forget to read related articles about 'open source', 'open data', 'open access', and 'open standards' in Kansas that have been posted on Open Health News (OHN).

Open Health News (OHN) plans on releasing a comprehensive report on the VistA Market in September with detailed information on VistA deployments state-by-state across the U.S., as well as in countries overseas, e.g. India, Jordan, Mexico, etc.  Also, Peter Groen, Senior Editor at OHN, will be presenting more on the subject and the associated VistA Installations GIS Map & Database v.1.0 at the upcoming OSEHRA Summit meeting.