Epic Implementation

When implementing Epic, there are many factors your organization must consider in order to achieve a successful implementation and Epic Go-Live. Your organization needs to ensure that your project is delivered on time and within budget. Here’s a few tips to help ensure your project goes off without a hitch.

Epic Implementation Cycle
In order to successfully implement Epic across your healthcare organization usually the implementation cycle will go through 6 major phases:

Planning and Assessment
Analysis
Design
Development
Delivery
Training and Support

Planning and Assessment

Before beginning the implementation process, it is crucial that your organization takes stock of its current state of affairs. Planning and Assessment consultants can align the proposed technological solutions with your organization’s goals and objectives.

Analysis
In the analysis phase, assigned consultants will work with your organization to understand the precise requirements of the project scope and map out the business process workflow along with identifying business areas needing the proposed EHR solution to provide your organization with specific tools for ensuring greater patient care.

Design
5 things are essential during the design phase of the Epic implementation:

Project Team
Functional Specifications
Project Timeline
Project Schedule
Work Statement

Project Team
In order to have an effective implementation, it is crucial to ensure that the team involved with the implementation process has the necessary expertise and experience to complete the task at hand. Furthermore, they have to have the necessary skills to communicate the changes to your staff and ensure everyone is on-board while getting used to the new changes incorporated through the implementation process. A strong and well equipped team will give end-users confidence, and help them navigate their new EHR platform.

The project team should be staffed by:

Project Manager – Consultant whose job it is to track the performance of all the daily project activities and ensuring open and clear-cut communication between the team on any issues that may arise during the implementation.
Technical Lead – Knowledgeable senior level consultant who can work with that Subject Matter Experts to make sure the implementation is a success by properly diagnosing and resolving any technical issues that may arise.
Subject Matter Experts – One or more consultants with considerable knowledge regarding the change management processes related to the organization and their impact on the goals and objectives of the organization.
Beta Testers and Quality Assurance – Power users who have the capacity to perform quality assurance tests, and to identify potential bugs to be fixed.

Functional Specifications
The Functional Specifications help in identifying the development time for each specific aspect of the Epic implementation and its relevant documentation.

Project Timeline
The Project Timeline clearly lays out when the desired objectives related to the implementation will be completed.

Project Schedule
Project Schedule clearly lays out which resource is expected to complete certain portion of the implementation in the given timeline.

Work Statement
Work Statement is basically the master list of the identified deliverables of the project and is the single most important document necessary to begin the Development phase of the project.

Development

The customer will work with relevant team members during each stage of the implementation process by providing his or her input on an ongoing basis to ensure that the implementation team has all the necessary information to make EPIC implementation a reality.

The client will also have to ensure that they diligently perform their responsibilities related to the Work Statement including Beta Testing, Usability Testing, and anything necessary for the project implementation.

Delivery

The delivery phase ensures that the project elements defined is completed on their due date. Once completed, your organization formally receives the system. Consultants will remain on standby, should any problems arise after the implementation.

Training and Support

Once your Epic implementation is developed and delivered, it is crucial that training and support consultants remain on site to teach your staff how to use the new system. Support consultants will be available to make any necessary optimizations and bug fixes throughout the process.

How Virtelligence Can Help

Virtelligence’s Epic consultants can guide your organization through every crucial step in the Epic implementation process. From planning, to build, to implementation, your organization will be in good hands. We have worked on over 200 Epic implementations nationwide and, due to the success of those projects, we boast a 95% client retention rate.