Health Partners New England will deploy Medsphere's OpenVista electronic health record system in its new 108-bed behavioral health treatment center in Devens, Massachusetts.

HPNE's TaraVista Behavioral Health Center, which provides short-term inpatient care for psychiatric and co-occurring substance abuse issues, will make use of OpenVista's flexibility as it works toward comprehensive clinical, population health, financial and revenue cycle improvements.

[Also: BT bets on Medsphere's 'open' EHR]

HPNE has also contracted with Phoenix Health Systems, a division of Medsphere, for additional support services related to OpenVista implementation.

"We believe EHRs enable just as much improvement in behavioral health as they do in acute medical care," said HPNE founder and CEO Michael P. Krupa.

OpenVista is the commercialized version of VistA-based EHRs created and developed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and and Indian Health Service.

Krupa said that OpenVista's origins, and the functionalities and cost-efficiencies it offers, made Medsphere "the clear choice for our needs, as did the enhanced quality and error reduction OpenVista has enabled at Silver Hill Hospital in Connecticut and other facilities."

[Like Healthcare IT News on Facebook]

Phoenix Health Systems will help create a comprehensive implementation plan, monitor performance during the implementation, which Medsphere officials say can be performed more quickly and affordably than with proprietary EHRs. Phoenix will provide troubleshooting, a remote service desk and application software support.

"Health Partners New England is well known in behavioral health for the quality care they enable and the genuinely collaborative approach they embrace," said Irv Lichtenwald, Medsphere president and CEO, in a statement. "This is a relationship of like philosophies as much as anything else, which bodes well for a long and productive future."

Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN