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Bob Warren,
M.D., Ph.D., serves as chief
medical information officer (CMIO)
and a professor of pediatric
rheumatology for MUSC. Warren is a
leader in the planning and
implementation of Epic, the new
Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
system at MUSC. He has experience
with the Epic product stemming
from his position as CMIO at Texas
Children's Hospital in Houston.
 Dr. Bob Warren. To view the video with Bob Warren, M.D., Ph.D., visit http://tinyurl.com/6lu5z3v.
Epic launches
at MUSC in five pilot clinics
March 22 and the institution's
remaining clinics go live May 17.
The Catalyst
recently sat down with Warren and
he shared some of the system's
benefits and ways the new EMR will
help facilitate MUSC's mission of
Changing What's Possible in health
care.
What is
Epic?
It is a user-friendly health
information system, chosen by MUSC
for implementation in the clinics
in December 2010; we've been
getting ready for go-live ever
since. The ambulatory EMR system
will improve, transform and
advance the way MUSC delivers
patient care. Epic provides an
easy, streamlined system
integrating the clinical
coordination of inpatient and
outpatient information,
communications, billing, pharmacy
services and other functions,
ensuring the delivery of the
highest quality and safest patient
care. It also provides an online,
patient-accessed portal called
MyChart, which empowers patients
and makes it easy for them to be
active participants in their own
health care and those for whom
they are entrusted to care.
Who
will use the new system?
More than
4,000 MUSC clinicians including
nurses, physicians, business
managers, administrative staff,
schedulers and documentation
staff will receive training and
support enabling them to be
proficient users.
Epic is
widely regarded as the
industry-leading EMR now in use
or being implemented at more
than 260 nationally-known
academic medical centers and
health care systems. Those
include Duke University Medical
Center, Wake Forest University
Baptist Medical Center, the
Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins
Hospital, University of Chicago
hospitals and the Kaiser
Permanente system. It is the
premier electronic medical
record system on the market
today among academic medical
centers.
What are some of its features?
The new
EMR benefits both caregivers and
patients. Within clinics, it
will simplify how we gather,
share and manage patient care
and billing information; it will
streamline our communication
with our MUSC colleagues, and
also community providers. It
will greatly improve and speed
our management of prescriptions.
For
patients, one of the most
exciting features of the EMR is
a patient-accessible secure
Internet portal called MyChart,
which allows patients and those
who care for them, to gain
access to and review medical
records, communicate online with
caregivers, schedule and view
appointments and even order
medication refills. Patients can
feel secure with
password-protected access and an
encrypted connection. Tech-savvy
users also will really enjoy the
mobile apps available for
MyChart. Users will be able to
link to their family's accounts.
It's very easy to sign up, but
there will be support via email
or phone for patients who need
help getting registered. For
information on MyChart, users
may call 792-3111 or email
mychart@muschealth.com.
How
will staff be trained?
Epic
implementation team leaders
hired about 70 credentialed
trainers to teach and train more
than 2,500 users. Trainers
completed a rigorous five-week
program preparing them to teach
Epic system modules – and they
are awesome teachers. Meanwhile,
all MUSC Epic users have
mandatory training to complete,
and more than that, they need to
be thoughtful about how Epic
enables best practices in their
clinic or office.
Classroom
training for pilot clinic users
is under way. Other clinical
users should sign up as soon as
possible for classroom training
between April 9 and May 5. Users
can register for training using
self-enroll in CATTS at http://www.musc.edu/catts.
Where
will training take place?
Classroom
training is happening at several
locations including university
hospital, Clinical Sciences
Building, Harborview Office
Tower, 135 Cannon Street, and
Cannon Park Place, Charleston
Memorial Hospital and off campus
sites including Lowcountry
Graduate Center (North
Charleston) and Northbridge
Executive Park (West Ashley).
How is Epic supported
financially?
The
Medical University Hospital
Authority, MUSC Physicians and
the MUSC Office of the CIO
contributed to the system fund
to provide support, maintain
software and manage information
flow. The EMR also is supported
by meaningful-use funding from
government stimulus funds, made
available to hospitals and
health care organizations
committed to upgrading and
investing in high-tech systems
supporting electronic health
record initiatives.
Here to help
Support
for Epic and MyChart is
available to staff and patients
beginning March 22.
Epic
support
For
general support with Epic –
email epic@musc.edu
or call 792-EPIC(3742)
For abstracting support – email
Dr. Kim Davis davisks@musc.com
or Dr. John Kratz kratzj@musc.edu
MyChart
Support
Patients can request access codes
(beginning March 22) at http://mychart.muschealth.com
For general questions or help,
email mychart@muschealth.com
or call 792-3111
For information
about the Epic Project and
training, visit http://epic.musc.edu
or call 792-3742.
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