Evangelical Community Hospital Successfully Moved to New Electronic Health Record

Evangelical Community Hospital has successfully transitioned to one, integrated platform for its electronic health record (EHR) at the end of 2022. After over two years of pre-planning and training, Hospital staff implemented the system on December 4, 2022. This strategic move by the Hospital modernizes the patient experience creating a seamless, safe, and more consistent healthcare delivery system for all patients in the community. 

The first two weeks of transition to Epic, a leading developer of comprehensive healthcare software used by numerous academic medical centers around the world, were devoted to hands-on use of the new system with experienced trainers brought onboard to assist with the transition using their existing knowledge of the Epic system.

Now that Epic is in place throughout the Hospital and its primary and specialty practices, staff continue to become more familiar with the new practices and procedures required to maximize the system. January through March 2023 will be devoted to optimizing its use including refining workflows, developing order sets, and adapting procedures to meet the needs of Evangelical specifically.

The transition to Epic makes way for quality improvements, best-in-class patient experiences, and efficient intake of new patients as well as the moving of existing patients to where they need to be to receive the best possible care in a timely manner.

“The platform takes into consideration all of the facets related to patient care and has placed them into one system that makes seeing all information in one place possible,” said Dale Moyer, Vice President of Information Systems at Evangelical.

“For our clinical staff this means no longer logging out of one system into another to get all the information they need about the patient. For our patients it means better access to their own information and smoother sharing of vital medical data and test/imaging results with providers outside of the Evangelical system for seamless care experiences.”

The implementation of Epic includes a switch to Epic’s patient portal, MyChart. Patients are able to access their medical records, see lab results, talk to their care team, and request prescription refills, among other functions. Looking ahead, moving to Epic is the next step in making it possible for patients to schedule appointments through MyChart, something that will come in the next phase of implementation.

Patients can sign up for MyChart now, utilizing the MyChart app available on smart devices as well on the computer. For more information, patients are encouraged to visit www.EvanHospital.com/MyChart.

“We thank our patients for their patience during our first two weeks of learning the new system and for giving us the room to become more accustomed to the system’s use moving forward,” said Moyer. “This is a change for everyone, but we’re confident this is absolutely the right step in being forward thinking about what we need for our patients now with room to grow and improve for the needs of our patients in the future.”