More than 900 Columba University Irving Medical Center staff have signed on to be "super users" during the New York City-based health system's upcoming Epic EHR go live.
The super users will be required to attend additional readiness activities and EHR training to provide close support for staff within their respective departments once the health system goes live on Epic in February 2020. These super users will lead their departments, help solve problems and explain system updates.
Super users will also assist the Epic project team with detecting and resolving standard workflow and application issues. The individuals will attend daily go-live issue meetings and report back to their departments as a way to streamline and implement EHR system changes.
"Most of us have been through implementations that employed outside consultants for at-the-elbow support and found that kind of help very limited," said Rachel Lewis, MD, associate chief medical information officer for ColumbiaDoctors. "Super Users will be our own people who already know the details of our systems and practices and who are trained to understand Epic and the designs that we've worked so hard to customize."