San Antonio-based University Health System will allocate $170 million of its fiscal year 2020 budget to transition to an Epic EHR system, according to Rivard Report.
The health system operates as part of the Bexar County Hospital District, which has a $2.02 billion operating expense budget for 2020. The Epic implementation caused a spike in the district's budget, which is up from $1.9 billion in 2019, University Health System President and CEO George Hernández said, according to the Dec. 3 report.
"The reason why there are more expenses than operating revenue this year is mainly due to the implementation of Epic," Mr. Hernández said. "This kind of system upgrade is once in a lifetime, and we will see a return on that investment by 2021."
The Epic EHR overhaul is just one of various projects the health system plans to roll out in 2020; with the upgrades and additional programs, University Health System expects to gain $67.1 million from operations and a bottom-line gain of $17.1 million, according to the report.
The University Health System network comprises a teaching hospital, 13 medical clinics, four outpatient renal dialysis centers, two urgent care clinics and a diabetes institute.