What's Ahead for UH Epic in 2022

The design and build phase will wrap up in the first quarter of this year, and our teams will then focus on validating and testing the system to ensure that everything works as intended

UH Clinical Update | January 2022

In the December 20, 2021, UH Town Hall entitled "How 'Systemness' Drives Service Excellence", Eric H. Beck, DO, and Community Delivery Network President Paul R. Hinchey, MD, highlighted how the UH Epic electronic health record (EHR) program will play a pivotal role in achieving Service Excellence by improving the point-of-care experience for patients and caregivers. As our system continues to face challenges presented by the pandemic, Dr. Beck reinforced how UH Epic will be a “transformational tool” designed to accomplish this core value.

“Epic will significantly enhance our ability to do this in a very elegant way,” according to Dr. Beck. “Being able to bring data, [and make] processes available to all caregivers at the point of care will allow us to provide a better experience for our patients.

Implementing a program of this magnitude involves numerous crucial milestones:

The design and build phase will wrap up in the first quarter of this year, and our teams will then focus on validating and testing the system to ensure that everything works as intended. Every step – from patient admission to charge capturing – must be tested and validated for accuracy.

In order for the new system to be ready for patient care on day one, we will conduct extensive Data Conversion. In this process, specifics such as patient history and demographics, allergies, future appointments, and much more, are migrated from our existing systems into the new EHR. Specifics regarding how much historical information will be available in UH Epic will be shared in the coming months.

Training is perhaps one of the most critical elements of preparation, and will be a primary focus from this point forward. This includes development of the curriculum, planning for the immense amount of logistics involved in training all of our caregivers, and launching programs specific to the successful training of physicians, Super Users and Credentialed Trainers.

The Super User and TECHI program will be launched with the purpose of recruiting, nominating, and preparing UH Caregivers to provide support to their colleagues throughout the series of go-live waves and beyond. Our caregivers know best how their department, unit or facility functions, and therefore are the ideal source of technical support to their peers as we adjust to the new EHR. 

Finally, Go-Live Readiness preparations will be crucial to ensure that all systems and caregivers are ready to go live in 2023. To ensure our implementation is smooth and successful, robust support models will be established to make sure local teams have the resources they need. Planning for and preparing communications to our patients about the MyChart patient portal, and sharing information with visitors about what is happening and how it may impact them, will also be important during this time.

We are excited to have you alongside us for the Best Epic Implementation of All Time! Review the go-live timeline schedule and stay on top of the latest news and activities by visiting the UH Epic Community site on the Digital Workplace at uhcommunity.uhhospitals.org/Epic.