LCMC Health Enhances Clinical Resiliency with EHR Alternate Production on AWS
NEW ORLEANS, March 6, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- LCMC Health, a leading nonprofit healthcare provider in Southern Louisiana, has successfully migrated its Epic™ Alternate Production environment to Amazon Web Services (AWS) with the help of Sapphire Health, an AWS Partner. This strategic move aims to enhance clinical resiliency and ensure continuous access to critical patient information during system disruptions.
The new AWS-based disaster recovery environment can be activated in under 20 minutes, providing the same or better performance as the on-premises systems. This migration leverages infrastructure-as-code using Terraform and Ansible, resulting in significant operational benefits and cost savings.
David Singer, Chief Information Officer at LCMC Health, emphasized the importance of adaptable solutions to meet evolving needs. "Extended system downtime is a huge disruption to our mission of providing the best care for our patients. AWS cloud gives us a flexible solution that addresses a multitude of disruption scenarios," said Singer.
The project, completed in early spring 2024, included two successful disaster recovery activation tests, both performed well under the 20-minute Recovery Time Objective. The new environment is forecasted to save LCMC Health approximately $3.5 million over five years, with additional potential savings in datacenter-related costs and software subscriptions.
Security Enhancements
Business Continuity and Security are key strategic concerns at LCMC Health. The new Alternate Production environment, combined with the previously implemented Isolated Recovery Environment, provides robust protection against potential threats. LCMC Health has integrated AWS security services such as Amazon Guard Duty and AWS Security Hub to ensure comprehensive monitoring and protection of the environment. David Gates, Information Security Officer at LCMC Health, highlighted the importance of this implementation: "Our infrastructure-as-code approach means every deployment follows security best practices by design, and our integration with AWS's native security services gives us unprecedented visibility and control."
LCMC Health plans to continue working with Sapphire Health to expand the use of AWS services, positioning the organization to rapidly adopt emerging technologies that enhance patient care.
About LCMC Health
Based in New Orleans, LCMC Health is a nonprofit network composed of eight hospitals with 1,826 inpatient beds, 10 emergency rooms, and 8 urgent care facilities across Southern Louisiana. The healthcare system focuses on providing the best possible care for every person and parish in Louisiana, employing over 14,000 people and 2,538 physicians and providers.
About Sapphire Health
Sapphire Health is an industry leading technical services company that specializes in complex technical migrations and implementations for healthcare providers and payers running electronic health record database from Epic™ systems. Founded in 2015, Sapphire Health provides technical implementation and managed services to healthcare organizations throughout US and Canada.
Media Contact:
Jill Stokstad
(608)338-1880
SOURCE Sapphire Health Technology Consulting
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