Selected Podcast
Epic Update
Stephen Prouse MS, RN-BC and Lori J. Wilson, MA-M, BSN, NEA-BC give an Epic Update.
Featuring:
Stephen Prouse MS, RN-BC is the Director, Clinical Informatics University of Maryland Medical System.
Lori J. Wilson, MA-M, BSN | Stephen Prouse, MS, RN-BC
Lori J. Wilson, MA-M is an Assistant Vice President, Patient Services University of Maryland, Upper Chesapeake Health.Stephen Prouse MS, RN-BC is the Director, Clinical Informatics University of Maryland Medical System.
Transcription:
Colin Ward (Host): Time now for an epic update as we get closer to our implementation date of March 15th. Joining us now is Steve Prouse, the director of clinical informatics; and Lori Wilson, the assistant vice president of patient services. So Steve, we’re getting closer now. What kind of update can you give us on the Epic system itself?
Stephen Prouse MS, RN-BC (Guest): Yeah thanks Colin. We’re about 120 days out. At this point, the build is essentially done. That would include all the nursing screens and order sets and care plans and education. Testing is well in progress. Everything is checking out well and ready for training. Operational leads, our clinical directors and managers are now shifting their focus on what we’re calling clinical operational readiness. This is really looking at our current processes, our downtime procedures, our policies and procedures, and making sure that we have them all adapted to the new system. So there's a team that meets every two weeks that’s working on this operational readiness and we’ll make sure that our team’s prepared for go live.
Host: So we’ve got the build itself and we’ve got the workflow to support whatever we’ve built in Epic already to go.
Stephen: We’re getting there, absolutely.
Host: Okay. So as we get closer to March 15th, Lori what does our frontline team need to know about training to be ready to use Epic on the go live date?
Lori J. Wilson, MA-M, BSN, NEA-BC (Guest): Our nurse managers received the schedule for training about a week and a half ago and they are currently signing their team members up to train. Most registered nurses need about 16 hours of training. If they're crossed trained in, let’s say, the inpatient area and the emergency room, they may need extra time in the classroom. I think the most important thing is once they're signed up for these classes, it’s practice, practice, practice. So there's something called hyperspace in Epic. It’s kind of a virtual--
Host: Sort of a sandbox kind of situation.
Lori: Yes. It’s a practice module. So the importance is that they get in there after their 16 hours of classes or 20 hours of classes and just practice as much as they can so when we go live on the 15th that they're ready.
Host: So, again, they should look for their managers to sign them up for this training, correct?
Lori: Yes. This is different. We have had a self-scheduling process in place for many years here, but we’re trying to train about 1,000 nurses and nursing techs within a six week time frame. So in order to assure that we’re able to staff our units and everyone is able to complete their education, we really need the managers to coordinate that.
Host: So we’re getting excited for the coming of Epic here to Upper Chesapeake on March 15th. Lori, Steve, thank you very much for the update.
Colin Ward (Host): Time now for an epic update as we get closer to our implementation date of March 15th. Joining us now is Steve Prouse, the director of clinical informatics; and Lori Wilson, the assistant vice president of patient services. So Steve, we’re getting closer now. What kind of update can you give us on the Epic system itself?
Stephen Prouse MS, RN-BC (Guest): Yeah thanks Colin. We’re about 120 days out. At this point, the build is essentially done. That would include all the nursing screens and order sets and care plans and education. Testing is well in progress. Everything is checking out well and ready for training. Operational leads, our clinical directors and managers are now shifting their focus on what we’re calling clinical operational readiness. This is really looking at our current processes, our downtime procedures, our policies and procedures, and making sure that we have them all adapted to the new system. So there's a team that meets every two weeks that’s working on this operational readiness and we’ll make sure that our team’s prepared for go live.
Host: So we’ve got the build itself and we’ve got the workflow to support whatever we’ve built in Epic already to go.
Stephen: We’re getting there, absolutely.
Host: Okay. So as we get closer to March 15th, Lori what does our frontline team need to know about training to be ready to use Epic on the go live date?
Lori J. Wilson, MA-M, BSN, NEA-BC (Guest): Our nurse managers received the schedule for training about a week and a half ago and they are currently signing their team members up to train. Most registered nurses need about 16 hours of training. If they're crossed trained in, let’s say, the inpatient area and the emergency room, they may need extra time in the classroom. I think the most important thing is once they're signed up for these classes, it’s practice, practice, practice. So there's something called hyperspace in Epic. It’s kind of a virtual--
Host: Sort of a sandbox kind of situation.
Lori: Yes. It’s a practice module. So the importance is that they get in there after their 16 hours of classes or 20 hours of classes and just practice as much as they can so when we go live on the 15th that they're ready.
Host: So, again, they should look for their managers to sign them up for this training, correct?
Lori: Yes. This is different. We have had a self-scheduling process in place for many years here, but we’re trying to train about 1,000 nurses and nursing techs within a six week time frame. So in order to assure that we’re able to staff our units and everyone is able to complete their education, we really need the managers to coordinate that.
Host: So we’re getting excited for the coming of Epic here to Upper Chesapeake on March 15th. Lori, Steve, thank you very much for the update.