St. Luke's University Health Network has completed its enterprisewide go-live of Epic's EHR system for inpatient records and calls the project a success.
In January, Bethlehem, Pa.-based St. Luke's facilitated a "big bang" go-live, meaning all hospitals switched to the new record system at the same time, and the health system has done so on time and under budget, according to Carl Dvorak, president of Epic.
"Going live big bang across six hospitals with a full enterprise suite was a tremendous accomplishment by their clinical and business teams," Mr. Dvorak said in a statement. "The St. Luke's team did a great job fostering engagement at every level of their organization. They went live on time, stayed under budget and their doctors didn't skip a beat and were able to handle more patients even during go-live."
St. Luke's reported having a 10 percent increase in capacity during the go-live, as well as sustaining revenue cycle metrics, which the health system attributes to its management plan and employee engagement.
"We had a phenomenal rollout of Epic, thanks to the teamwork and cooperation among departments, staff, clinicians and management," Joel Fagerstrom, executive vice president and COO of St. Luke's, said in the statement. "St. Luke's made it our mission to engage, inform and empower every employee to learn about Epic."
St. Luke's plans to begin implementing Epic Ambulatory this spring to connect outpatient offices and community providers who practice at St. Luke's.
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