It’s been a month since the official “Go Live!” at Wallowa Memorial Hospital, where a successful transition to a new electronic health records system called Epic took place at 2 a.m. June 11.
Led by project manager Josie Conrad, the transition to Epic was months in the making.
“The switch to Epic represents a significant investment for the hospital,” said Hospital CEO Larry Davy. “But there are many benefits for patients. By switching to Epic we are now able to offer our patients secure access to all of their health records online, which is not only convenient for the patient, but also allows for seamless medical treatment.”
The Epic system allows doctors to view a patient’s medical record online, including surgeries, medications, chronic diseases, family history, lab test results and other medical information.
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“It gives the doctor or health care provider a complete picture of a patient’s health record, allowing for the most efficient, effective and safe medical care possible,” Conrad said.
Because Epic is the industry leader in electronic health records, with a majority of hospitals and clinics on the Epic system, it connects Wallowa Memorial Hospital to a large network across the country. That means if a patient has an emergency on vacation in another state and winds up in the emergency room of another hospital, if that hospital also uses Epic, then the emergency room physician can access the patient’s health record to help guide the treatment process.
“This is critical when you’re dealing with emergency situations, and quick decisions need to be made,” Davy said. “The advantage to the patient to have their information readily available to the attending physician cannot be overstated.”
Due to the enormity of changing an entire organization’s computer systems, more than 30 representatives of Epic descended upon Wallowa Memorial Hospital the week prior to Go Live and stayed through the following week to help each department get comfortable with the new system, answer questions, and trouble shoot.
“Their support really made a huge difference in how smoothly the transition went,” Conrad said, noting that all staff had to go through extensive class room training to learn the new system. “It was a huge effort on the part of employees, and they really stepped up.”
The effort was not lost on members of the team that arrived to help, and they had glowing things to say about their time at Wallowa Memorial Hospital — and in Wallowa County.
“This is a lovely part of the country, with a lovely hospital, and it was a great Go Live,” said Ted Greene, one of the representatives of Epic.
The hospital reminds patients to please bring in their insurance cards and photo identification for their next appointment, since those need to be rescanned.
“It’s taken a little extra time, but so far everyone has been very understanding,” Conrad said.
Date: July 19, 2016