Introduction
Epic Systems is the global market share leader in the healthcare sector's electronic health record (EHR) software. With a vision for ‘deeper and broader healthcare management,’ Epic offers a comprehensive, integrated EHR platform supporting a full range of clinical, operational, and financial healthcare functions. Its EHR provides secure communication channels among healthcare providers so that critical patient information reaches providers when and where it is needed.
EHRs can greatly enhance hospitals' functions, such as automating redundant tasks related to record-keeping and paperwork, reducing the likelihood of errors made during routine procedures, and optimizing time use. With Epic, a unified electronic health record, the information for any patient is readily available to all physicians and staff, and critical decisions can be made much faster.
Additionally, Epic Systems’ EHRs are integral to the compliance needed in the healthcare industry. From the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations to compliance with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) programs, healthcare organizations must maintain patient records accurately and securely. Epic’s software suite empowers healthcare providers to adhere to these compliance mandates, as well as ensure the security of patient information. In this way, Epic enables healthcare organizations to function more efficiently while also helping them consistently provide safe, high-quality care that adheres to required regulatory standards.
Epic implementation - A closer look
Standardized integration protocols
Epic integration can work with other applications because it leverages industry-standard integration protocols such as HL7 and FHIR. Healthcare informatics professionals use these interoperability standards to integrate Epic with other healthcare technologies; Epic and HL7/FHIR standards provide the platform upon which Epic and other technologies communicate to create an interoperable, well-connected ecosystem of healthcare systems within an organization in real-time.
Workflow management
Efficient workflows are crucial for optimizing the operations of any healthcare organization, and Epic integration can be vital to maximizing these efficiencies. Combining Epic with other systems allows schedulers and staff to automate and streamline various workflows, allowing routine tasks to be done faster and in less time. Epic integration gives providers access to complete patient information in real-time. This includes current medications, hospitalization dates, and scheduling information while making critical information available when needed.
Instruction and study
Rollout and implementation of Epic also involve much training and learning for the people using the system – from initial training programs for users on Epic to its operation in the integrated EHR environment to long-term support for users should they experience difficulties in their daily work. In other words, training and services from Epic allow doctors and staff to know what it is capable of and use all the system's functionalities for better outcomes.
Phased rollouts
Phased rollouts represent Epic’s recommended strategy for implementing an EHR. Each Epic system portion is introduced to the organization in stages and implemented over time. Rolling out an EHR in phases minimizes disruption, allowing clinical and non-clinical staff to become accustomed to the tools in smaller increments. This approach enables departments to absorb the new EHR functionality one phase at a time.
Cooperation and dialogue
You can build a collaborative atmosphere where issues and concerns are discussed early and become fewer in number. Cooperation will help shape the EHR to fit your organization’s practice style, leading to better satisfaction and easier adoption. One of the critical tenets of our team is to ensure that all the stakeholders have a voice during the process, so we involve them in a workshop-style environment and give them time and solid engagement. This ensures that the final product is personalized for better user adoption.
Ensuring data privacy
Data privacy is a vital consideration in building and deploying an EHR, as a healthcare organization needs to meet obligations such as HIPAA while protecting the privacy of its patients’ records. Epic has highly secure data systems in place, but additional protections during deployment include tightening access controls, instituting regular security audits, and staff training on data handling. We provide governance structure assessments and data privacy support to ensure that your EHR meets all regulatory compliance and delivers patient privacy during implementation.
Careful planning
Proper planning is key to an Epic migration because it will make the transition from legacy to Epic EHR go smoothly. It requires mapping current data, determining potential stumbling blocks, and crafting a comprehensive migration roadmap with timelines, budgets, and achievement points. Organizations can quickly deal with the migration challenge with objectives and a framework. We offer planning and project management services to help healthcare organizations develop a successful migration plan specific to their needs to transition to the Epic platform seamlessly.
Maintaining data integrity
Maintaining data integrity during the migration is essential to ensuring patient data is true, complete, and safe. Data migration can cause gaps that may impact patient care and regulations when not done correctly. We focus on creating robust data validation and cleansing to guarantee that all data loaded to the Epic platform is consistent and secure. We partner closely with healthcare providers to set data management standards during the migration, ensuring the security of vital patient data.
Minimizing downtime and interruptions
Minimizing downtime and disruption while migrating to Epic helps maintain patient continuity and the operation of the business. Severe unplanned outages can affect clinical workflows and jeopardize patient satisfaction. Our approach to Epic migration planning and execution, such as testing the migration in a lab environment, transferring to a test environment, and providing support on-site during migration, helps reduce downtime and life disruptions. This ensures continuity of patient care while increasing patient satisfaction.
Comprehensive needs assessment
A needs assessment at the start of an Epic consulting engagement is instrumental in ensuring that we fully understand the needs of a particular healthcare organization and how we can tailor our recommendations to fit their specific circumstances. These assessments can include interviews with staff regarding current workflows, technology, and other considerations. We take all this information and create a needs matrix for our clients, a tallied list of their Epic requirements and pain points during the implementation process.
Efficient planning and strategy
Having the processes and plans in place through strategic planning is invaluable for proper Epic implementation. For example, an Epic consultant works with healthcare leaders to develop project plans that identify schedules, allocated resources, and specific milestones. This planning mitigates risks and uncertainties and ensures everyone is on the same page throughout implementation.
Training and support
User adoption is essential for success, so our consulting training programs are designed to help staff acquire the knowledge and skills they need to use the Epic system effectively. Moreover, we can provide ongoing support that allows users – especially those new to the Epic EHR – to feel confident and solve their problems independently whenever possible. We strive to establish a culture of training and support where our expertise and experience complement and strengthen practical, forward-looking Epic EHR implementation.
Streamlining administrative workflows
Epic practice management tools help organizations manage their administrative workflows for scheduling, billing, and patient records. By automating repetitive tasks, Epic ‘takes away’ administrative work, allowing staff to focus more on priority issues. This reduces bottlenecks in service requests such as appointments and payments. We work with your organization to ensure your Epic implementation optimizes administrative workflows. Your employees will be more engaged, leading to smoother service.
Patient-centered care coordination
Epic practice management engages in patient-centric care coordination by unifying clinical and administrative data in one system. The collaboration gives healthcare providers access to all patient information, removes departmental silos that come with having disparate management systems, and helps facilitate smooth care coordination. Organizations can leverage a more complete, enterprise-wide view of patient histories, appointments, and treatment plans to deliver personalized care.
Optimizing staff productivity
Using Epic’s practice management system has a significant advantage in increasing staff productivity. Because they manage properly, track performance, submit labs, check insurance, and check in patients, Epic helps them work smarter and more efficiently. This saves time spent on manual activities and helps ensure that staff have access to critical real-time information. We can help you customize and configure Epic to operational objectives so your staff can focus on care.
Maximizing financial performance
Intending to optimize health system financial performance, Epic offers revenue cycle management solutions—from pre-arrival tools to billing and collections—to enhance the entire revenue cycle process. They do this by smoothing out workflows and catching errors early, reducing delays in accounts receivable, and minimizing denials and other delays in cash flow. Our services can help your organization utilize Epic tools and resources to identify revenue improvement areas and best practices to optimize your experiences and ensure the ideal financial outcomes.
Automated billing and payment solutions
These automated solutions expedite billing and payments, allowing for an efficient and timely revenue cycle. Epic bills can be submitted at the point of care quickly and with fewer errors, leading to faster payments. Moreover, patient bill payments can be completed more seamlessly, improving patient satisfaction and reducing administrative burdens. We configure this automated billing process to fit your organization’s needs and allow for a more efficient billing and payment process.
Comprehensive reporting and analytics
Epic provides robust reporting and analytics that provide real-time reports and visibility into your organization’s financial performance and operational efficiency. This also includes monitoring key performance indicators, income and reimbursement trending, and quality-of-care analytics. Through our services, we can set up these reporting tools to enable your organization to make data-driven decisions to ensure financial compliance, improve financial management, and drive revenue growth.
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Consolidated operations control
With its central management feature, Epic helps healthcare organizations consolidate and systematize many operational processes into a single, understandable system. This enables administrators to have a broader scope of view for better centralized control and decision-making. We can configure and customize Epic to fit your organization's specific operational needs, enabling and enhancing the ease of centralized management that drives better productivity and operational efficiency overall.
Unified patient record access
Epic provides access to a single patient record across all departments and facilities. With full access to a patient’s chart no matter where that patient is being seen, Epic improves the accuracy of your diagnosis and, therefore, the quality of patient care. It allows you to proactively treat patients with an accurate history the first time, ultimately improving patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes. Our team can guide you and help integrate this feature into your Epic build, allowing patient data to flow seamlessly.
Optimized resource allocation
Epic’s central management supports improved staff, equipment, and facility utilization through real-time staffing, equipment, facility demand, and reporting. This helps organizations optimize utilization and eliminate waste by ensuring that critically needed staff, equipment, and facilities are in place at the right time. We can review your needs to optimize resource management and configure Epic to increase your ability to deliver safety-net care while enhancing workforce and financial efficiency.
Improved cross-department collaboration
Better interdepartmental collaboration is another advantage of Epic’s enterprise management because it enables interdepartmental communication and cooperation. Epic allows various departments to see the same information about the patient and operations, breaking down traditional departmental barriers. Our team can help customize your Epic instance and personalize your workflow to eliminate silos for better teamwork to provide more consistent patient care and organizational efficiency.
Tailored solutions for unique needs
Epic enables healthcare entities to mold the program to meet operational and clinical needs. Whether a healthcare entity desires to update workflow, integrate specialized tools, or augment patient care delivery, Epic can be molded to meet your unique objectives. We provide services that tailor Epic to meet your organization’s distinct needs, further your organization’s ambitions, and accomplish more for each patient.
Personalized user interfaces
Personalized user interfaces enable staff to tailor their roles and work style patterns to maximize their satisfaction and efficiency. Epic enables broad personalization of dashboards and navigation schemes, allowing users to access the information and tools they use most frequently. We offer specialized services to design and implement customized user interfaces that match your teams' unique clinical and administrative needs to enhance efficiency and productivity.
Flexible module configuration
Epic’s module-based structure allows practices and large health organizations to configure the modules based on the services offered - patient management, finance, billing, or clinical documentation. The system's module-based nature ensures it is scalable and agile while you expand and modify functionality as per the ever-changing organizational needs. Our team helps you get the right configuration and implement it in a way that integrates with your existing infrastructure while enhancing functionality across departments.
Scalable for growth and expansion
Epic’s modularity means the system can expand with your organization if you add new services, open new facilities, or respond to regulatory changes. The system’s infrastructure can easily incorporate new features or modules to meet your growing needs in delivering efficient and effective care. Our planning and configuration services can help you configure your implementation to plan for organizational growth and continually improve care delivery.
Seamless integration with external systems
Epic’s EHR interoperability enables external system connectivity. It facilitates the easy exchange of vital information with labs, pharmacies, imaging centers, and other healthcare facilities in the network for better communication and coordination. With our services, you can configure and optimize Epic’s standard integration connectivity to exchange data between external systems for operational optimization and enhanced patient care.
Enhanced patient care continuity
Epic’s interoperability promotes continuity of care by ensuring that your providers have access to a patient’s medical history and continuing care record, regardless of where their care is delivered. With the ability to see the patient through a more holistic medical lens, a clinician can make better medical decisions and provide better care. We work with your organization to ensure that your Epic system is configured to promote continuity of care, improving patient satisfaction.
Cross-system data access
Information logged into Epic’s electronic platforms can be accessed across systems, helping care teams access the necessary information and share data between different facilities and platforms. This makes Epic information accessible to multiple facilities, no matter how sharing solutions are designed. Our experts work with your team to configure Epic to support cross-system data access and increase your workflow efficiency from the beginning.
Support for industry standards
We support industry standards such as HL7, FHIR, and other regulatory standards and frameworks so that your EHR can help your organization meet current requirements for passing data between systems. We can help your organization understand and implement these standards within Epic to achieve compliance and ensure compliant data interoperability between systems in a secure and protected manner.
Automated data entry and validation
With Epic’s automation of data entry and data validation, healthcare providers can avoid the tedious process of manually entering data across the entire system and risking human errors. By automating the data collection and validation of inputs, healthcare providers can ensure the accuracy of patient records and administrative information. Our capabilities empower us to help implement and facilitate these automated processes by accomplishing the data entry, avoiding human errors, and slowing the data input process across the system.
Real-time updates across systems
Through unique Epic applications, we can update systems in real-time. That means your team will have access to the most up-to-date patient and operational data at all times, giving everyone involved in a patient’s care an advantage in decision-making. We ensure your Epic system is synced across all your departments and keeps you all on the same data page in real-time.
Error reduction in clinical workflows
Epic’s integrated features reduce errors in clinical workflows by automating key tasks and implementing validation checks. Whether medication orders, lab results, or patient documentation, Epic helps prevent mistakes by ensuring accurate data entry and timely alerts. Our services focus on optimizing these features within your workflows, minimizing errors that could impact patient care, and improving overall clinical safety.
Reliable reporting and analytics
Effective reporting and analytics are essential to evidence-based decision-making. Epic’s reporting tools provide accurate, current information that can be filtered to suit your financial, clinical, or operational needs. We can help you configure your analytics tools to minimize frustration while ensuring you receive precise, usable data to make decisions that improve organizational performance and patient care quality.
HIPAA and HITECH compliance
Epic is compatible with all significant regulations, like HIPAA and HITECH, ensuring every piece of data is treated according to the laws. This protects your organization from potentially expensive fines and legal suits while avoiding the repercussions of violating privacy and security rules. Our Epic services ensure that the Epic system is configured per the latest standards to maintain compliance with government and industry laws and protect against all threats, such as data breaches and lawsuits, from not following core compliance regulations.
Advanced data encryption
Epic employs a sophisticated encryption protocol that protects both at-rest and in-transit data to help shield confidential information before, during, and after it interacts with or communicates with EHR servers to help prevent unauthorized access to patient history. Our team assists you with Epic’s encryption setup and implementation in a way that complements your organization’s security strategy by encrypting your data to the best industry standards.
Role-based access control
Epic’s role-based access control (RBAC) features ensure that users have access only to the data necessary for their role, reducing the risk of internal security breaches and unauthorized access to sensitive information. By assigning specific permissions based on user roles, Epic supports a more secure environment. Our experts can help configure these access controls to align with your organizational structure, ensuring optimal security and compliance.
Regular compliance audits and monitoring
Epic provides tools for continuous compliance monitoring, which allows you to review compliance against regulations regularly and track issues or risk areas related to your compliance to protect against advanced threats and penalties. We can help you set up compliance monitoring and auditing, which tracks your systems, data, and workflow in real-time and notifies you of compliance changes or breaches.
Configurable to evolving needs
Epic is a flexible system that can be configured as the workflows, features, and technologies change over time. From small adjustments in how the care team communicates about a patient to a complete overhaul of the registration experience, we help you configure Epic to enable operational success no matter what comes your way.
Support for various care models
Care models vary across primary care practices, specialty practices, and systems. Epic has been built to help support these different care models, including primary care, specialty care, and hospital systems. Epic allows care models that support general workflows and care for acute and chronic illnesses or even more specialized care protocols and workflows. We help implement and configure Epic to work in the context of your specific care models to deliver better care in your workflows.
Seamless scalability for growth
Epic is built to scale, allowing you to scale your operations without downtime. Adding new sites, more services, or patient populations is easy as the system scales without skipping a beat. We deliver robust implementation services to create long-term plans and configurations to handle your peak demand and volume for future growth while optimizing operations.
Future-ready for technological advancements
Epic is constantly evolving to stay ahead of the technology curve. Frequent updates introduce new capabilities, allowing you to plug into new technologies like telemedicine, AI, and advanced analytics. Your system can grow and evolve with the latest technologies coming out every day, putting you at the forefront of your market. We help ensure that your Epic system can adopt emerging technologies, helping prepare your organization for the future.
Epic implementation benefits
Cost-effectiveness
Epic delivers long-term cost-effectiveness due to its ease of systems integration, EHR consolidation, and time, labor, and equipment savings. Epic achieves this by having a single electronic health record (EHR) system for an entire healthcare organization. It reduces the need for multiple specialized platform systems, decreasing administrative overhead and IT infrastructure maintenance costs. Its use of automation to facilitate various workflows and tasks, as well as its ability to reduce overall labor costs, helps it improve the overall financial status of its customers.
Enhanced functionality
Epic provides more features by combining clinical, administrative, and financial systems into one system. This allows your healthcare organization to access more tools for patient care management, billing, scheduling, and reporting. These can be customized to your organization's requirements by department to optimize. Our team helps you implement and customize these functionalities by giving your organization more tools to increase operational effectiveness and patient care.
Optimized healthcare portals
Our Epic patient portals offer secure access, easing patients' access to view lab results, request appointments, and communicate with care providers. This intuitive tool improves the patient experience while providing a more efficient way to connect with their care team. Our expertise in Epic implementation ensures that your patient portal is fully integrated and customized, fostering better patient engagement and streamlining interactions between patients and healthcare providers.
Improved patient interactions
Epic significantly improves the patient experience. Physicians can view a holistic and real-time patient record, enabling providers to take more informed steps and bring care and service closer to a patient’s individual needs and circumstances. Integrated secure messaging and telehealth features in Epic also mean better communication between patients and their care team. We help ensure that these tools engage patients, improve communication, and provide better relationships with care teams and outcomes.
Enhanced clinical decision-making
Epic improves clinical decision-making with clinical decision support systems (CDSS) that prompt care providers with alerts, evidence-based guidelines, and information from data analytics that can help inform provider decisions, ultimately improving patient outcomes. We can help configure and optimize Epic’s decision-making tools so that your providers can access accurate, timely information that can improve the quality of care delivered.
Data transfer efficiency
Epic’s robust interoperability and integration capabilities significantly improve data transfer efficiency. Whether exchanging data between departments, external systems, or healthcare facilities, Epic ensures smooth, secure, and fast data transfers. Our services focus on configuring Epic to meet your data exchange needs, ensuring that your organization benefits from reliable and efficient data transfers that streamline workflows and enhance care coordination.
Effective planning and strategy
Effective implementation requires strategic planning followed by a phased approach to training, adoption, and optimization so that system performance can stay at its best even as more users adopt the system. We help clients chart a path to constructing a strategic approach to the Epic system that is tailored to their unique needs to ensure that the new system fits their organization’s requirements, their workflow becomes efficient, and their transition to the Epic system goes as planned with a minimum amount of disruption.
Boosted productivity
Automating administrative tasks, decreasing manual data entry, and eliminating care bottlenecks, Epic is an organizational productivity intervention that enables staff to focus more on patients and less on paperwork and inefficient workflows. We can assist your organization by ensuring that your installation is configured for maximum efficiency so that staff can do what they do best – perform their work at maximum productivity – while enhancing the quality of that care.
Exploring future trends
AI and predictive analytics
Telehealth and virtual care capabilities
Interoperability and data sharing advancements
Patient-centered innovations and engagement tools
Our core offerings
Customized solutions
Our team offers custom solutions that adhere to your practice’s needs. We collaborate with you to develop software to fit within your existing systems and workflow. Suppose your business requires a patient management solution, advanced EMR, or integrated services like billing and claims. In that case, our team will work with you to develop a solution for your existing infrastructure resources. Focusing on personalization and functionality increases efficiency, improves care for your patients, and hits the needs of your business wants and needs.
Quality assurance
Our developers embrace quality assurance and adhere to rigorous testing and validation processes that guarantee our solution's superior reliability, security, and performance. Our team also dedicates time and care to quality assurance, reviewing every single element of developed software to ensure its functionality, usability, and overall quality meet and exceed industry standards. By placing quality at the top of our agenda, we enable healthcare providers to have a tool that ensures safer, more comfortable, and more efficient services without breaching compliance regulations.
End-to-end product development
Our end-to-end product development service includes the entire software lifecycle from concept, design, and development to deployment, support, and maintenance. We work closely with you to understand your requirements and tailor each product to your needs. We manage your complete spectrum of development needs to streamline your process, reduce time-to-market, and yield robust, scalable healthcare products to innovate and improve patient care.
Dedicated team
Our outstanding team of professionals is what sets us apart. With a team of creative developers, practical project managers, and industrial experts, we work with you to understand your specific needs and deliver custom-built software solutions. Our vision is to become a solution provider, not a seller-and-forgeter. While we do our best to set you up for success, we’re available for personalized support and continued consultation to ensure our software provides sustained value to your business. We set out to build long-term relationships and are here to help you succeed!
Why choose us
We appreciate that transitioning to custom software can be crucial for our clients. That’s why we invest considerable time in supporting you throughout the development of a solution that fits your needs. In the process, we ensure that your transition into a new system is fully supported.
We build custom software solutions to fit in your practice, challenges, and requirements. By implementing a bespoke solution in your practice, you gain enhanced functionality, including improved workflow, increased efficiency, the ability to grow as your practice grows, and the tools you need to care for your patients.
We work diligently with your team to carefully address all your requirements. During this process, we define the project objectives, prioritize features, and ensure the finished product aligns perfectly with your practice's goals.
We take pride in implementing systems efficiently with minimal disruption through thorough planning, pre-implementation support, and ongoing communications. With your new system in place, we offer greater operational efficiency to help you back up and running quickly to provide high-quality patient care.
FAQs
Epic implementation in healthcare involves installing and configuring the Epic EHR system to manage patient records, improve workflows, and ensure regulatory compliance. It includes system setup, customization, training, and data migration.
Epic EHR implementation typically takes 12 to 24 months, depending on the size of the healthcare organization and the complexity of the systems being integrated.
Obstacles include transferring the data, interrupting workflows, retraining staff, ensuring systems can interoperate, and keeping data private and compliant.
Epic implementation can cost anywhere from $100 million to $500 million and more, depending on the size, complexity, and geographic distribution of the healthcare organization and the parts that need to be customized.
Epic EHR helps improve patient care through better access to health information; advanced documentation, data collection, and reporting systems that facilitate real-time clinical care; better care coordination; and enhanced patient engagement using portals and mobile apps.
Still got questions?
