For health systems, switching to a new EHR can cost as much as a new hospital.
And the decisions are often just as crucial. Just ask David Tam, MD, CEO of Lewes, Del.-based Beebe Healthcare, which is investing $40 million to $50 million in an Epic EHR.
"Epic is truly, in my opinion, the most important thing we can do to improve the quality and access of care to the people who live here in Sussex County," Dr. Tam told Becker's. "It's just as important as a new building."
Beebe Healthcare is one of 19 new health systems recently welcomed into the Epic fold. The two-hospital system plans to go live with the new EHR in November 2025. It is one of Beebe's biggest overall investments in the past decade.
While community health systems like Beebe Healthcare often partner with larger organizations to afford Epic through the EHR vendor's Community Connect program, the Delaware system decided to go it on its own.
"This is clearly such an imperative for us to do if we're going to be an independent community health system that is focused on the future and really leveraging technology to take care of patients," Dr. Tam said.
Having its own Epic EHR will also allow Beebe Healthcare to better connect with its local partners — including private practices, federally qualified health centers, even dental groups — to address social determinants and improve overall community health, he said. The EHR will also help with physician recruitment as the vast majority of medical residents train on Epic.
The health system will consolidate about seven different EHRs — from imaging to oncology to radiology — into one, Epic. Beebe Healthcare currently uses Oracle Health (formerly Cerner) and athenahealth for its inpatient and outpatient EHRs, respectively. Despite the large upfront investment, the new EHR will save the health system money in the long run by turning off these other platforms, Dr. Tam said.
Beebe Healthcare is shifting some employees full time to the Epic implementation while leaving others to maintain the legacy EHRs.
"It's like, for a while, having two cars, because the one car is coming online and the other car is the one that we still rely on to ensure that we provide high quality and safe care," Dr. Tam said.
In the meantime, the health system will have to delay or devote less time to other IT projects because of all the bandwidth required for Epic, according to Dr. Tam.
The new EHR also checks off several items on Beebe Healthcare's strategic plan: access to care (through Epic's mobile capabilities); clinical excellence (by better analyzing different departments of the health system); and being a top employer (by giving staffers an easier-to-use platform).
Patients will also be better able to connect their health data no matter where they are in the country, Dr. Tam said, as Epic is the most widely used EHR.
Dr. Tam said the vast majority of his staff are looking forward to the switch to Epic, with about 1 out of 100 apprehensive just because it's a change.
"But when they are, when I sit down and talk with them about how, 'Right now you've got three screens up on your computer, because you've got to go back and forth to do something, and when this is done, you'll have it all under one screen, one login, one click,' everybody's excited about it," he said.