Epic
At the Heart of Patient Care

There are thousands of data points about hospitalized patients from the machines that monitor heart rate, blood pressure, temperature and more – far too much information for the human brain to process quickly. A predictive model in Epic helps clinicians make sense of all of that data so they can intervene faster when a patient’s condition is likely to worsen. Now, organizations are finding that this predictive model is effective for patients with COVID-19, too. “The biggest challenge is getting a physician in the room and helping the physicians see that these are the places you can customize, and let’s go through it with you and help you do it. It’s easy. Number one is personalization. Number two is quality of training,” says Judy Faulkner, the CEO of Epic.

Enter Epic.

Epic is a cloud-based EHR solution catering to a number of specialties. The software is in use across a broad range of practices, from community hospitals and independent practices to multispecialty hospital groups and hospice care providers.

Epic offers the standard range of ‘core’ EHR features, and practices can add modules depending on specialty. Epic has a strong focus on patient engagement and facilitating remote care. An extensive patient portal, available as a native app for both Android and iOS operating systems, allows patients more flexibility in managing their healthcare requirements. On top of this Epic offers numerous telehealth options - from supporting video visits and post-surgical follow-ups to patient monitoring features.

Number one is personalization. Number two is quality of training

Epic also emphasizes interoperability and easy integration with third-party systems. More Epic physicians have attested to Meaningful Use Stage 2 than users of any other system, and records can be shared with any EHR that uses these standards. Open.epic—Epic‘s open API—aims to facilitate integration with third-party software and apps. Epic EHR is cloudbased, so available on any device with an internet browser installed. Native apps are available for iOS and Android operating systems.

More than 50 health systems already use the Deterioration Index predictive model. Epic released an update to help them measure the model’s performance for patients with COVID-19, and now 21 organizations including Parkview Health, ProMedica Health System, Confluence Health, and North Oaks Health System are using the model for more than 16,000 of these patients.

The model gathers factors from a patient’s chart, such as age, vital signs, and lab results, and puts them into a single risk score. A study from six different health systems shows that the model effectively identifies when patients with COVID-19 might decline.

Parkview Health found that 75 percent of hospitalized patients who had a risk score in the middle zone were eventually transferred to the ICU. In more than 40 percent of cases where a patient needed a ventilator, the model showed a high risk more than three hours in advance. Clinicians use that information to help them determine which patients need to be closely monitored, and which patients need to be transferred to a hospital with openICU beds. “The industry is changing right now. Neal is gone from Cerner. Jonathan is gone from athena. The same folks aren’t at Allscripts. It’s changed. Harvey Wilson, he was with Eclipsys— that used to be one of the biggies. So, yeah. It’s changing. Meditech is still there. Neil Pappalardo, I think is retired, but their CEO has been around for a long time, so that’s consistency there,” informs Judy.