Catholic Health's recent move to an Epic EHR system has delivered unanticipated benefits to the Buffalo, N.Y.-based health system's COVID-19 vaccination process, according to a March 19 Buffalo Business Journal report.
Catholic Health credits the $135 million investment in Epic as a driving force behind its vaccination program, helping to distribute nearly 12,000 vaccinations to healthcare workers and others in New York's 1A category since late December, according to the report.
The health system went live on Epic in November 2020; Catholic Health's hospitals, home care, long-term care, clinician offices, health centers and ancillary services facilities moved from eight separate EHR systems to the new single, unified platform.
Catholic Health's new EHR was designed to plug into the vaccine site information and then transmit that data to physicians, patients and payers. Patients who are eligible for the vaccine can also check availability and schedule their vaccine at any of the health system's point of distribution vaccine clinics, according to the report.
"We're sharing information and sharing the ability to pre-register across the entire Catholic Health system instead of trying to manage in silos with the others," said Lisa Cilano, senior vice president of finance, revenue management and business advisory services.