Case Study: Boston Children's Hospital achieves faster EHR performance and reduced unplanned downtime with Cerner's Remote Hosted Option (RHO)

Boston Children’s speeds up EHR response times, reduces unplanned downtime following RHO flip

Boston Children’s Hospital sought to improve electronic health record (EHR) performance and eliminate unplanned downtime after an extended outage in 2015. In July 2017 the hospital partnered with Cerner to move to a remote hosted option (RHO), aiming to speed transactions, reduce outages, and free IT staff to work on strategic initiatives.

The RHO transition delivered faster, more reliable EHR performance: average transaction response times improved ~45.5%, login response times ~61%, and transactions under five seconds rose ~80% (measured Aug–Oct vs Apr–Jul 2017), and there had been no full unplanned system downtime as of January 2018. The move also provided improved read‑only access during disruptions, easier upgrades with less user impact, and allowed staff to reallocate effort to other priorities, supported by strong provider engagement.

Boston Children's Hospital

Jonathan Hron

Pediatric Hospitalist