Epic Insights
Efficiency for Community Connect MDsThe Challenge
Having deployed Epic Community Connect to a regional network of hospitals and clinics, an organization came to Healthcare Triangle, Inc. (HCTI) to address growing provider frustrations and inefficiencies. The affiliates were live on Epic for 12-18 months, and most resided in rural locations, disconnected from core assistance & support.
Historically high provider turnover in these communities meant that if unaddressed, growing frustrations with Epic could mean the loss of additional clinical resources, downturns in patient service volume, and loss of revenue.
The Solution
HCTI’s Epic team was brought in to help, and with their breadth of experience across Acute, Specialty, and Ambulatory settings, were able to immediately answer questions and impart education, tips, tricks, & advice. Working both with the organization’s Epic team and directly with the affiliate staff, HCTI shadowed workflows, reviewed system data from Epic’s Provider Efficiency Profile and user access logs, and tailored plans for each area or staff member accordingly.
By making recommendations staff could immediately adopt/ implement new features and relationships built on trust formed quickly. With a firm foundation, individualized action and improvement plans informed by data were initiated.
The aim of these plans was to:
- Improve Epic competencies
- Increase utilization of key features
- Further system personalization
In the clinics, this meant 2-4 hours of dedicated time per provider. In the hospital and specialty service areas, improvements were targeted across the Epic modules and staff with the most to gain.
Results
In Epic, prioritizing the extra effort around advanced education and configuration makes all the difference. Most organizations implement and educate to an 80% threshold. It’s the last 20% that proves to be most valuable. In clinic, providers demonstrated on average a 25% reduction in time spent at the computer and with Epic. Working directly with staff also helped improve clinical operations. Managers, administrators, & informaticists at each site were for the first time able to completely understand and evaluate system issues.
Epic Insights: Efficiency for Community Connect MDs Primary Focal Points Included:
- Inbasket – Clean-up, Quick Actions, Quick Notes
- Notes – Smartphrase & SmartLink Creation, NoteWriter Macros, Precharting Templates, Dragon
- Orders – Order/Smart, Set Personalization, Panel Creation, Preference List Clean-up and Optimization
- Charges – Education, Preference List Clean-up, Automation
- Personalization – Epic Activities, Problem List, Workflow Navigation, Dashboards & Reports, Click & Scroll Reduction
Conclusion
Many of the individuals we ultimately worked with had voiced resistance to putting in additional hours allocated to “training”. However, after the HCTI engagement completed, 100% of providers surveyed indicated that the time with expert resources was valuable and they were better off than before.
Furthermore, while focused on the awareness and personalization of Epic’s key tools and functions, staff found improvements to scheduling and patient throughput, to the speed and accuracy at which information was entered and reviewed, and to tracking certain populations to see if direct patient outcomes improved as well.
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Client
Healthcare Provider
Sector
Healthcare
Technology
Epic
...By making recommendations staff could immediately adopt and implement, results were achieved effectively and efficiently
-Alex Atkinson,
Principal Epic Consultant