On November 22, 2021, the Wabash General Hospital Board of Directors approved for the hospital to implement a new electronic health record system. WGH will be transitioning to Epic in July 2022. This was made possible by acquiring the system through Pointcore, a retail division of OSF Healthcare, since Epic usually does not sell directly to critical access hospitals. We plan to make this transition as exciting as we can for our staff to learn the new system, so we have named this change, The Epic Adventure. We plan to have plenty of fun adventures along the way throughout the training sessions to the launch!
Epic is a private, employee-owned organization located in Madison, Wisconsin. It is the platform used across nearly all U.S. News & World Report leading healthcare organizations, which includes Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, and Johns Hopkins Hospital. Healthcare organizations rate Epic software #1 Overall Software Suite and #1 Overall Physician Practice Suite in KLAS’s Best in KLAS 2021: Software and Services report.
Pointcore, Inc. was founded in 2014 as a subsidiary of OSF HealthCare with the intent of extending proven excellence in patient-focused care to external clients. It is the part of the organization that allows OSF HealthCare to extend resources, share cost and utilize common infrastructure with external clients, all to the benefit of patients.
WGH currently has five electronic health record systems that are not always the easiest to work with as the organization continues to add physicians and services. As Karissa Turner, President & CEO of WGH, stated “We know change is hard, but this transition will make things a lot easier for staff and patients. Just like hiking up a mountain is hard, but the view at the top is breathtaking and so worth your time and commitment.”
We currently experience challenges with many interfaces and work arounds to make all our current systems work together and have all the information at our fingertips to provide better patient care. We know this adventure will bring us closer together, even though it takes us away from our normal routines. We plan to implement the best practices to continue to provide the best care to our patients. Patients will be able to benefit from Epic’s one-stop patient portal, MyChart, on mobile devices, tablets, or desktop applications. This system offers patient access to their medical records, including lab tests, medical imaging, prescriptions, vaccinations, physician referrals, and more in one convenient location. Epic also leverages the hospital’s referral network and allows both organizations to share best practices for improved patient care and outcomes.
This system will be better for our current staff and patients, but it will also help us recruit new services to our community. When recruiting new physicians, “What electronic health records system do you have?” is often the top question, so we are excited to be able to tell them we are using Epic.