After more than two years of planning an epic, electronic medical record system ”“ or an Epic system, more accurately ”“ for Greenwich Hospital CEO Frank Corvino it came down to a few anxious moments in mid-April.
“Everyone is waiting for the baby to be born at this point,” Corvino confessed, less than 48 hours before flipping the switch on a system from Verona, Wis.-based Epic Systems Corp. that brings Greenwich Hospital into the new world of electronic medical records (EMR) under federal health reform.
For more than two years, hundreds of people within Yale New Haven Health System have worked to implement an Epic Systems EMR platform from a Trumbull office where Yale New Haven has its information technology operations based.
As the case with EMRs around the country, Epic will be extended to independent physicians affiliated with Yale New Haven, Greenwich Hospital and Bridgeport Hospital.
“People are excited about it,” Corvino said. “I made the rounds this morning and people were chomping at the bit ”¦ There was very little resistance to changing this because I think everyone realized this will be great for patients.”
Greenwich Hospital is spending $25 million on the project, according to spokesman George Pawlush, and Yale New Haven $250 million in total. To qualify for federal reimbursements, it must be able to demonstrate the Epic system has “meaningful use” for patients, doctors and other stakeholders in improving operations and health information access, while cutting costs and errors.
“The daunting piece of it is bringing everyone to the same platform,” said Quinton Friesen, chief operating officer at Greenwich Hospital. “It”™s like going from DOS to Windows. The platform is totally changing. We”™ve spent thousands and thousands and thousands of hours of time training staff.”
What”™s more, the Epic system of course will be under ongoing evolution over time. The federal HITECH of 2009 set aside more than $19 billion to develop health-care information technology; the $184 million venture capitalists invested in the sector was the highest quarterly total tracked by Mercom Capital Group.
The first quarter totals included the $500,000 Connecticut Innovations Inc. invested in MyCare Inc., with Yale New Haven System using the Westport-based start-up”™s search engine for doctors to find information in electronic medical records.
Plenty of options were available for Yale New Haven Hospital, of course, including Kansas City, Mo.-based Cerner Corp. whose revenue topped $2.2 billion last year. The GE Healthcare division of Fairfield-based General Electric Co. aims an EMR platform called Centricity at larger physician practices, and other Epic rivals include longtime health IT stalwart Meditech.
After choosing Epic”™s EMR system, Yale New Haven hired Daniel Barchi as chief information officer ”“ chiefly for his experience implementing Epic at the Roanoke, Va., hospital where he previously worked.
If Barchi knows Epic”™s anatomy better than most, he is happy with the results as it pertains to his own physiology ”“ particularly when it comes to Epic”™s MyChart feature that furnishes people with swift status updates following doctor”™s visits.
“I had blood drawn at 7:15 a.m., and I had an email two hours later telling my results,” Barchi recalled. “That was my ”˜wow”™ moment as a patient.”
For now, on a Saturday in late April, Barchi was manning a “command center” in the hospital”™s auditorium staffed with anywhere from 60 to 100 clinicians and computer experts to help staff work out any kinks.
“I hope there”™s no reason to call it the ”˜emergency room,”™” Barchi said.
Regardless of the level of intensive care staff required that day, Friesen noted the job is hardly done with continued system “optimization” over several months at Greenwich Hospital; and Yale New Haven Hospital and Bridgeport Hospital to follow with their own implementations this year and next.
If the scene at the command center might seem like Greenwich Hospital”™s attempt to send a man to the moon, Friesen and all are mindful that electronic medical records simply point doctors, nurses and staff on a trajectory for better patient care.
“EMR is like a building block,” Friesen said. “It”™s not the end in itself ”“ it simply creates a strong foundation.”
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect that Greenwich Hospital is spending $25 million on the EMR project, while Yale New Haven is spending $250 million in total.
