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NYC Health + Hospitals Completes Successful Transition to New Epic Electronic Medical Records System
Mar 26, 2020
NYC Health + Hospitals today announced that as of March 1 all its patient care sites successfully transitioned to the new Epic electronic medical records (EMR) system. The new technology, which was named H2O (Health + Hospitals Online) by the health system, has created approximately five million patient records since the transition began in 2018, and is the system’s first unified EMR that connects more than 51,000 health care workers and providers at 68 patient care sites. The new EMR system empowers patients through the MyChart feature, which allows patients easy access to their records through a secure patient portal. In addition to improving patient care, the new EMR system also included new billing and coding technology to improve efficiency and ensure that NYC Health + Hospitals is collecting the maximum amount of revenue for the services it delivers. The new H2O system has already generated more than $215 million in added revenue annually. NYC Health + Hospitals invested approximately $1 billion to adopt the new EMR and revenue cycle system-wide. The adoption of the EMR is a vital part of the public health system’s comprehensive, multi-year redesign to build a competitive, sustainable organization that will continue to offer high-quality and accessible health care to the people of New York City.
“Comprehensive care has stronger outcomes if all healthcare providers are coordinated and have access to a patient’s medical history and specific needs,” said NYC Health + Hospitals President and CEO Mitchell Katz, MD. “Our updated, state-of-the-art electronic medical record system facilitates information sharing between care teams and specialty care providers, and MyChart functionality puts the patient in the driver seat of their health.”
“The successful implementation of our enterprise electronic medical record system, H2O, is credited to the partnership between our committed clinicians, revenue cycle and laboratory business owners, along with our dedicated and talented IT staff who designed, built, tested, trained, implemented and is now supporting our enterprise medical record system,” said NYC Health + Hospitals Chief Information Officer Kevin Lynch. Our health system has improved patient care across our five boroughs, along with increasing our revenue to support our mission.
The new EMR system connects hospitals, emergency departments, primary and specialty outpatient services, and the health system’s home care agency into one unified medical records and finance information system to help clinicians deliver safe, efficient care, and allows patients easy access to their records through a secure patient portal called MyChart. Clinicians are able to access a patient’s record at any patient site and easily refer them to necessary specialty care through the system’s eConsult capabilities – further streamlining the process for patients, limiting wait time for appointments, and overall increasing access to expert care. Since the integration, more than 277,000 specialty care referrals have been facilitated through eConsult.
Key components of the EMR system includes:
- Giving Patients Easy Access to Personal Health Records – MyChart is the online portal that allows patients to use a computer, tablet, or smartphone to find their test results, send messages to their care team, request prescription refills, and make/reschedule appointments.
- Improving Health Outcomes – An early alert system and real-time reports can help clinicians improve the identification of patients with sepsis, in both inpatient and emergency department settings. The EMR system also supports the hospitals’ ability to prevent medical errors.
- Growing Revenue Collection – The new Epic revenue cycle management product is projected to help the health system capture an additional 5 percent of adjusted patient revenue – or up to $142 million in added revenue annually.
NYC Health + Hospitals became an early adopter of EMRs in the 1980’s when it purchased and implemented an early system that was used until the Epic transition. The system was modified and enhanced over time when it embedded depression screening aids, asthma action plans, and more.
The Epic suite of health care IT products is recognized as “best in KLAS” by an independent organization that monitors IT developments. Epic is used by some of the top health care systems across the country, including Kaiser Permanente, NYU, University of Miami, UCLA, Partners Health Care, and Sutter Health.