From EHR go-lives at multiple health systems to donating to healthcare workforce development, here are 14 updates on Epic's operations, software products and partnerships reported by Becker's in October.
- Iola, Kan.-based Allen County Regional Hospital installed its new Epic EHR system Oct. 1. Allen County Regional clinicians have been training on the Epic system to prepare themselves for the change. The installation will allow Allen County Regional to align themselves more closely with other hospitals in Kansas City, Mo.-based Saint Luke's Health System.
- Harnett Health, a two-hospital system in Dunn, N.C., and Lillington, N.C., completed its transition to Epic EHR on Oct. 1.
- Wisconsin Medicine, the philanthropic arm of UW Health and University of Wisconsin's school of medicine and public health, is launching a workforce development initiative led by a "significant donation" from Epic. Madison-based Wisconsin Medicine announced the initiative Oct. 4, noting that Verona, Wis.-based Epic's donation will allow for the creation and expansion of programs "to inspire, train and support the next generation of healthcare workers with a strong focus on impacting historically marginalized communities."
- Epic has made changes to its sepsis prediction model in a bid to improve its accuracy and make its alerts more meaningful to clinicians. An Epic spokesperson told Becker's in an emailed statement that it began the development of its new sepsis predictive model in February 2021 and released it to customers in August. The upgrade, according to Epic, was made to improve the software.
- Aspen (Colo.) Valley Hospital went live with its $16 million Epic EHR installation on Oct. 1. The hospital's board of directors approved the switch from Meditech to Epic on June 13, 2021. The implementation created 13 long-term jobs and four short-term jobs.
- Loma Linda (Calif.) University Medical Center digitally screens for childhood adversity in its Epic EHR, leading to increases in both screenings and revenue.
- Epic partnered with Adaptive Biotechnologies, a biotechnology company, to expand clinician and patient options for those who have been diagnosed and treated for various cancers. The company will integrate its clonoSEQ Assay, an FDA-approved test that can monitor minimal residual disease, into Epic's EHRs, giving oncologists easy access to these tests. The aim of the integration is to help providers order and review clonoSEQ results. The integration is set to go live in 2023.
- Gillette, Wyo.-based Campbell County Health is switching EHRs from Meditech to Epic in a move that will cost $8 million.
- Aitkin, Minn.-based Riverwood Healthcare Center's board has approved funds for the health system to transition to an Epic EHR system. The new system will replace the hospital's current system that is hosted by Minneapolis, Minn.-based Allina Health.
- West Orange, N.J.-based RWJBarnabas Health has received a perfect score from EHR vendor Epic for its EHR implementation project. The health system achieved a Gold Star 10 ranking, the highest level of recognition a health system can achieve, for implementing a "strategic pause" that allowed team members to work on the front lines during the COVID-19 pandemic, while continuing to build its Epic system.
- Large health systems have been rapidly moving over to Epic as their preferred EHR provider. Becker's reached out to the EHR vendor to ask why this was. An Epic spokesperson said that the company's gains have been consistent, averaging about 26 large healthcare system pickups a year. The spokesperson pointed to Epic being an integrated system that is built around the patient and preferred by physicians, better financial returns among health systems, high patient satisfaction with MyChart, interoperability among Epic customers, and organizations wanting to collaborate with the Epic peer group.
- Epic added digital patient scheduling company Yosi Health to its app marketplace. Yosi Health provides digital patient scheduling, registration, payment and communication cloud-based software solutions to healthcare organizations.
- Ann Arbor-based Michigan Medicine has completed its final health IT Epic EHR upgrades for 2022. The new features in MiChart went live on Oct. 23 with an aim to advance care delivery and efficiently meet regulatory requirements.
- Fergus Falls, Minn.-based Lake Region Healthcare is spending $25 million to unify its three EHR systems with Epic. The transition, which is set to be completed on Nov. 1, was made possible through a partnership with Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Sanford Health as the Epic Community Connect host.