With State Approval and Contract Signed, Clinical Transformation Project Plows Ahead

In August, the State Hospital Review and Planning Council (SHRPC) gave URMC the nod of approval to embark on a $49M venture that will revolutionize the way Highland and Strong hospitals deliver patient care.

Called the Clinical Transformation Project - the centerpiece technology investment of the Medical Center’s strategic plan - the project aims to dramatically integrate care delivery by building a single patient-centric electronic medical record (EMR) that spans URMC's entire acute care system. This one record will put nurses, attending physicians, even community doctors on the same page (or, technically, the same screen), as they leverage the same integrated tools to promote patient safety, enhance care quality and efficiency, and extract the data needed to drive clinical research.

Just last week (Friday, Sept. 11), the project celebrated yet another milestone: finalizing contract negotiations with Epic Systems, a Wisconsin-based software solutions company renowned for its ability to collaborate alongside its academic medical center and health system clients.

URMC’s acting chief executive officer, Mark Taubman, M.D., said Epic’s solution promises to be a great functional fit for URMC.

“Epic’s outstanding dedication to customer service at a number of top academic medical centers – the Cleveland Clinic, NYU, Mount Sinai, the University of Chicago, and Stanford’s hospitals and clinics – really impresses us,” Taubman said. “This was no small decision, as this project is the single most important investment toward the strategic plan’s goal of improving patient safety, and Dr. Berk has championed it right from the start. We’re thrilled that this vendor selection was made from the ground-up – our 200-plus-person project advisory committee, which is composed of all types of providers from across Strong and Highland, overwhelmingly recommended Epic.”

Over the next few months, members of the project’s clinician-led implementation team will attend Epic training. Come February, this team will spend a full year “in the trenches,” working closely with subject matter experts within departments scheduled for the system’s initial roll-out (which includes both Strong’s and Highland’s inpatient units, EDs, pharmacies and oncology departments). This implementation team will actively seek user participation and input as the model is reviewed, configured, and tested.

“In the interest of enhancing patient safety and care quality, it’s important that we get these systems up and running as soon as possible,” said URMC’s Chief Information Officer Jerry Powell. “After we go live, we’ll then have the opportunity to really ‘kick the tires,’ making adjustments or optimizations where necessary.”

Come 2011, Strong Memorial staff will undergo intense user training, which is expected to wrap-up before the hospital’s system goes live in spring 2011. Afterward, Highland users will begin training, prepping for that hospital’s go-live in fall 2011.

Over the next three to five years, as financing permits, URMC plans to pull cardiology, OBGYN, transplant, perioperative services, and anesthesia and radiology services onto the Epic platform.

Stay tuned! As this Clinical Transformation Project gains momentum, you can expect more frequent and detailed communications keeping you up-to-date on plans, detailed timelines, training schedules, system test-drives, and much more. In the meantime, you can learn more about the project here.