Transitioning from legacy Cerner or Oracle Health to Epic® represents a significant shift for organizations, especially regarding how it impacts clinical workflows. To minimize operational delays and disgruntled clinical staff and to avoid impacting patient care, a health system or hospital needs to understand how implementing a new EMR will change clinical workflows.
Here are a few things to keep in mind throughout the EMR transition.
The Importance of a Thorough Assessment
As we’ve mentioned, conducting a thorough assessment of your current processes and systems before an implementation is crucial. Evaluating your existing workflows and clinical content standards is the correct first step in the process, allowing you to identify current state pain points as well as opportunities for enhancement through your new EMR.
Understanding how the existing workflows will be affected also allows you to develop user personalization. It’s essential to outline workflow optimization and tailor the transition plan to meet the specific needs of your organization’s clinical teams.
Working with a vendor who can best understand Epic’s features and how it can enhance efficiencies will help maintain smooth operations and allow your clinical staff to deliver uninterrupted patient care during the conversion process. All of this needs to be established prior to implementation and training, or your transition to Epic will not be as successful as it could be.
Another important step in understanding the impact on clinical workflows is to test them before going live. A technical dress rehearsal (TDR) allows staff members to walk through real-life scenarios using the Epic system. A TDR helps identify any issues with the new workflows and allows the IT team to fix them before they impact patient care.
Understanding the New Tools Available to the Team
Cerner and Epic are two different systems, and they handle tasks differently. Workflows once routine in Cerner may look or feel different in Epic. These differences can affect day-to-day tasks, such as patient charting, order entry, and department communication.
For example, Epic might use different screens or menus to input data compared to Cerner. Staff who use one system must learn Epic’s new layouts and processes. If not adequately addressed, this can lead to frustration or slowdowns. That’s why preparing your team for these changes is key.
Internal education during the transition needs to include a strong communication plan to assist the clinical team in understanding what is now available as part of their typical workflows and clinical documentation processes. One of those new tools could be Physician Personalization Labs, which gives providers hands-on time to tailor their ordering and documentation workflows, helping them work more efficiently and reducing after-hours “pajama time.” Each implementation is unique, but supporting your clinical staff with consistent, open communication will help them feel more supported during the change.
The Importance of Application Rationalization
As a part of the integration checklist, application rationalization marks a significant opportunity for clinical workflow optimization. It’s crucial to identify all your hospital’s third-party applications and understand how they will integrate with the new EMR. While legacy Cerner relies on third-party applications and has developed interoperability with those apps, Epic provides a highly integrated system with more opportunities for personalization.
Prioritizing Training and Continuous Education
Training is essential to reducing the impact of these workflow changes. Before going live, all staff members need to understand how Epic works. Personalized training sessions based on roles are the key to success at this stage.
Role-based training helps ensure that each staff member can continue doing their job smoothly, even though the system has changed. Also, having dedicated trainers or super users on-site during the go-live period can be beneficial in supporting staff as they adapt to the new workflows. When questions arise, having a dedicated support team on standby during the go-live period is helpful. If staff members run into trouble using Epic, they can get help immediately without slowing patient care.
Moving from Oracle to Epic will change clinical workflows, but those changes can lead to better patient care in the long run with the proper preparation. By investing in staff training, testing new workflows before going live, and supporting your team throughout the transition, you can minimize disruptions and make the most of the time-saving features Epic has to offer. The key is to keep patient care at the center of the transition and to work closely with your clinical teams to ensure a smooth workflow adaptation.
*Epic is a trademark of Epic Systems Corporation
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