Epic

The decorative sheep on our farm campus seem to have lives of their own…   Epic staff find them one morning in a conference room, the next on a desk, the next enjoying the sunrise.   We’re sure, of course, that our staff play absolutely no role in the adventures of these furry friends 😉 #healthcare #healthIT #workplace

60 million people—or 1 in 5 Americans—are at risk of losing access to essential healthcare services.   With financial and staffing challenges, rural hospitals across the country are facing potential closure, deepening disparities that already exist between rural and urban populations.   A coalition including Intermountain Health, Microsoft, Gates Ventures, West Health, and Epic formed to help find solutions. Using a “hub-and-spoke” strategy, for example, rural hospitals can collaborate with larger “hub” health systems to access additional technology (like the EHR), staffing, specialty care, and other resources.   Here’s the coalition’s write-up on this kind of collaboration, telehealth, and other remote care technologies that help rural patients receive top-notch care without top-tier travel: https://lnkd.in/gkBxyG9A #healthcare #healthIT #telehealth

Cancer is a harrowing experience. Top-notch care complements excellent medicine with excellent support. At Mayo Clinic, dedicated oncology nurses—called “navigators”—do just that, providing personalized educational, logistical, and emotional support to patients with cancer.   Navigators use Epic to track outreach, document specific needs, and manage interventions. Last year, they helped nearly 7,000 patients overcome barriers that could have prevented or delayed treatment. Mayo has found that patients who work with navigators start treatment sooner, make more informed decisions, and experience higher satisfaction and quality of life.   Great work, folks! Read more: https://lnkd.in/gMBkpzpx #healthcare #healthIT #cancer

A while back, the Harvard Business School invited us to Boston to be a part of their Innovation in Healthcare curriculum. Business students are often taught to start small, get outside investment, grow grow grow, and then sell or go public. We shared our path: grow slowly, no outside investment, stay privately held and employee-owned. It sparked quite a discussion. It was great meeting you all! #healthcare #healthIT #startup

We hope the new year exceeds your expectations—by leaps and bounds. Happy holidays, everyone! -Your frolicking friends at Epic

Wasted appointments are, technically speaking, a bummer. High schedule utilization is good for patients and health systems alike. For every wasted appointment time, there’s a patient somewhere waiting to see a doctor. A study from Weill Cornell Medicine found that using Fast Pass in Epic—which automatically sends appointment offers to patients through MyChart when slots become available—significantly reduced the number of days that patients had to wait for appointments in imaging and procedural areas. Echocardiogram patients who accepted an offer from Fast Pass were seen about 13 days sooner, while endoscopy patients were seen 50 days earlier than originally scheduled. Congrats, folks! Check out the study: https://lnkd.in/gTi6YPDt #healthIT #healthcare #patientexperience

Every day, health systems provide lifesaving treatment in their infusion departments.   By increasing their efficiency, they can provide an experience that's easier for both patients and staff. That means getting more people the treatment they need when they need it—with less stress.   Check out how they’re using Epic to optimize infusion scheduling: https://lnkd.in/g_C3qEUS #healthcare #healthIT #infusion

In the span of one year, more than 5.8 million duplicate imaging orders were potentially prevented throughout the Epic community. While imaging is an important part of care, unnecessary imaging is expensive, time-consuming, and can expose patients to risks like radiation, intravenous contrast, and additional workups of incidental findings. One study found that imaging services accounted for 8% of total Medicare Part B expenditures, which equated to nearly $64B in 2019. In Epic, providers can see when they order imaging for which their patient already has a similar order or recent result. The provider can then choose whether it makes sense to continue to place the order. Read the recent study: https://lnkd.in/erBWt6AX #healthcare #healthIT #efficiency

Congratulations to Mark Mabus, MD, RPh from Parkview Health for receiving the 2024 Epic Physician Advisory Council Physician of the Year award! Mark’s peers recognized him for his dedication to provider well-being and his innovative approach to provider education. Just one example: his focus on documentation efficiency—including an escape room that reinforced ways to reduce “note bloat” 😊—helped his peers decrease progress note length by 25%, cut note-writing time by 20%, and reduce “pajama time” by 45%. We sat down with Mark to discuss how Parkview’s approach to training improves physicians’ lives, his vision for the patient experience, and how he got started in clinical informatics. Check it out: https://lnkd.in/gHDwNRpZ Congrats, Mark! #healthcare #healthIT #physicianwellbeing

Winter can be dark, sure. But that means more time to enjoy a Starry Night. Here's to snowy season. #healthcare #healthIT #workplace