Jamaica Hospital Implements EPIC

 Jamaica Hospital has been preparing for the implementation of EPIC, a state-of-the-art electronic health record system, for the past year, and on Monday, August 1, the system finally rolled out—marking a new era in patient care.

The new EPIC system allows the hospital to track, assess and coordinate care across multiple systems, eliminate the need to store volumes of paper, and integrate its many clinical systems with each other and with its financial systems. In addition, the system allows e-prescribing, enables patients to access their health information online, and it complies with all criteria for electronic health records set forth by the federal government, under the HITECH ACT. The hospital also plans to incorporate document scanning into the process, which will further enable efforts to capture a complete electronic patient record and minimize issues of lost and incomplete patient charts, and will use cameras to take patient photos, which will help reduce identity theft on behalf of patients.

Many of the newly implemented processes will take place at point of care and during the registration process.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled with the use of EPIC at Jamaica Hospital,” said Dr. Robert Mendelson, Medical Director, Informatics Department for MediSys Health Network, and Director of Jamaica Hospital’s Division of Cardiology. “The system offers many benefits. One of the most important benefits is being able to share medical information between inpatient and outpatient venues and between different providers. This greatly improves communication among providers and prevents problems such as duplication of tests and other services.”

He added: “Overall, EPIC will enhance patient care and the patient’s experience in the health care setting, while also reducing the cost of patient care.”

To help prepare for EPIC, build and training teams were trained at EPIC, with the principal trainers then training Credentialed Trainers and Superusers from Jamaica Hospital. A training center was also created to offer on-hands training for all employees who would utilize EPIC.

E-learning was first used and consisted of various short courses, in areas specific for each employee function, which gave an introduction to the functionality of the system and provided a foundation on how to use the system. Employees also underwent classroom training designed specifically for their function. This gave employees a better understanding of how to specifically use EPIC for their daily workflow and another opportunity to engage in hands-on training. An exam was given at the end of the training. Upon passing the exam and demonstrating their proficiency with the system, employees were provided with log-in information. 

“We spent a lot of time training and working with employees for the use of EPIC,” said Dr. Mendelson. “There are some issues we still have to resolve with the system but we are overall optimistic about the positive changes it will bring to the hospital.”

Jamaica Hospital is the first hospital in the network to implement EPIC. Brookdale is tentatively scheduled to go live December 2011 and Flushing March 2012.
 

 

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