NYC Health + Hospitals launched an Epic EMR at one hospital and 10 community health centers and neighborhood clinics in Brooklyn, marking the next step in the New York City-based health system's systemwide IT platform rollout.
NYC Health + Hospitals unveiled its plan to consolidate its disparate EMR systems onto one Epic platform in May 2017, with the ultimate goal to move the health system's 40,000 users across more than 70 patient care sites to a unified IT platform. The platform not only comprises Epic's EMR system, but also includes the vendor's MyChart patient portal, decision support tools and revenue cycle features.
The recent implementation at the 11 Brooklyn facilities, including NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull, marks the first implementation of the project — dubbed "H2O," short for "Health + Hospitals Online." The health system also upgraded existing Epic EMR systems at three other hospitals and 15 health centers and neighborhood clinics in New York with the unified IT system's features.
Together, the four hospitals and 25 community-based ambulatory care sites represent 14,000 active users who are now working with the new H2O system.
"Successful implementations are possible only following an incredible amount of planning and hard work," Kevin Lynch, senior vice president and CIO of NYC Health + Hospitals, said in a news release emailed to Becker's Hospital Review. "We have diligently created a good design-build-test-train-and-implementation process that has resulted in this effort."
The next Epic platform rollout will take place in spring 2019 at two hospitals and 19 community-based ambulatory care sites in New York.