Some Epic Updates

This is just to update folks about where we stand in our Epic implementation process at Asante, at least in the Rehab part of Asante.

We've now had one round of "discovery" and two rounds of "validation."  Validations are 3-day periods of many meetings with the sub-groups that work on various aspects of the software.  For example, one sub-group might be concerning patient scheduling, another with clinical documentation, and a third with business aspects such as billing, coding, and so forth.  During a validation, the Epic representatives project screens of their "model" product, and "validate" that what we see on the screen would work for our workflow.  If it doesn't work, they go back and adjust to our needs.  If does work, then it passes through to another level of more detailed development.  So, for example, the screens we were shown for outpatient scheduling did not appear to work for us.  They set up a followup meeting with their Epic in-house experts, who showed us another level of detail to the scheduling software.  After that presentation, we decided we could live with the product as long as certain refinements were made or capabilities demonstrated.  And so it went through many hours of presentations on all aspects of the software.

My walk-away impressions were as follows. 

First, it was great to finally see something concrete:  The actual work screens in the software. 

Second, it was remarkable how well thought out the workflows are; in many instances the "model" will work fine for us. 

Third, I was very very impressed with how truly integrated the system is; it will offer a vast improvement in the Inpatient Rehab Center by having a true interdisciplinary plan of care and documentation workflow. 

Furthermore, I was impressed with how the work was integrated even beyond the clinical level:  The clinical flows directly into the business and useful reports are available in real-time as a result.  This should allow us to be much more efficient, and safe, in our delivery of care.

We expect another round of validation sessions in early January.  As we evolve our software, we will be involving more and more staff in the sessions to refine the products down to a more granular level.  The work has just begun, but unlike so many implementations, I can see a real benefit to us and to our patients down the road.  Go-live is still expected to be around 4/1/2013.