Ohio Health System to Implement Epic EHR After Partnership With OSU

Ohio-based Adena Health System announced it will implement Epic EHR after expanding its partnership with The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

Providing care to more than 400,000 individuals in south-central and southern Ohio, Adena is now considered an Epic Community Connect Partner with Ohio State Wexner Medical Center.

Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, a long-time Epic Systems customer, will now be able to connect to Adena and its several other partners in the state. Adena can leverage the medical center’s resources and health IT expertise to further optimize the EHR platform and boost patient care, explained the health system.

“Epic is the gold standard in electronic medical records and we are committed to meeting the unique needs of our region through improved clinical efficiency, health care administration and patient care," Jeff Graham, Adena President and CEO, said in a statement.

“When I came back to Adena, I heard loud and clear from our patients and community members that our billing needed fixed. I have also heard from our Adena providers and caregivers that our current two-system EMR is cumbersome and not ideal. That is why I am excited we will be moving to a solution that will be significantly felt by our patients and staff,” Graham continued.

The health system said the Epic EHR implementation will take roughly 18 to 24 months and it is projected to go live in 2022. During and after implementation, employees of Ohio State Wexner Medical Center will help train Adena staff on the new EHR system.

“We are excited to have Adena join our Epic Community Connect program and look forward to the substantial benefits patients will experience through the shared EMR,” said Phyllis Teater, chief information officer at Ohio State Wexner Medical Center.

“Now both facilities can share patient records with their complete medical history to aid in better care, better referrals and better population health management. It helps keep patient care local whenever possible and provides our partners with more affordable access to a state-of the art EMR system.” 

With this implementation, Adena patients will be able to access Epic’s patient portal, MyChart. Using the patient portal, a patient can schedule appointments, place orders for prescription refills, communicate with providers, and view both health history and lab results. Patients can utilize their mobile phone or computer to access the patient portal. 

The implementation will include an integrated telehealth platform, enabling chat, video, and voice communication between two or more users.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth integration increased in popularity due to the overpopulation of hospitals and the need for social distancing to help limit the spread of the virus.

The promise of increased interoperability between Epic customers is a major reason for the implementation, the health system said. An Adena patient can theoretically make her health records available to a separate hospital in the health system, or a separate hospital out of Adena’s system that also uses Epic.

In October alone, the vendor enabled over 221 million patient data exchanges through its Care Everywhere platform.

The vendor said this was a 40 percent increase from the same time last year. Since COVID-19 sometimes forces patients to travel to unfamiliar hospitals, interoperability and accurate patient data exchange are critical to maintain patient safety.

Patient data exchange and interoperability continues to be key in the attempt to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. That was a record number of exchanges for the EHR vendor, Epic said, and that level of performance will be necessary as the healthcare industry currently stares down a flood of COVID-19 cases.