Epic

Too often, veterans don’t receive the healthcare benefits to which they’re entitled—and it’s often due to a simple lack of awareness.   They might not know what help’s available—from health insurance to community resources for housing, food, and treatment of PTSD—and they might not identify as veterans when they receive care at their local health system. The Department of Veterans Affairs asked us to help them close the knowledge gap.   Now, health systems can use Epic to connect with the VA and promote awareness of the healthcare benefits that veterans have earned. Tufts Medicine and Sanford Health were the first to go live with the connection back in January and May of this year, respectively. Since then, Tufts has confirmed over 2,500 veterans with at least one condition that allows them to receive additional healthcare benefits under the new Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act—a law that expands VA health care and benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic substances. Sanford has educated nearly 6,000 veterans about their PACT Act benefits and issued nearly 500 social care referrals.   Congratulations, folks! #healthcare #healthIT #veterans

By using a predictive model to identify early signs of patient deterioration, RWJBarnabas Health has seen a 15% decrease in mortality among patients in the hospital—about 100 lives saved since March of this year.   Epic’s Deterioration Index looks beyond a patient’s current physiological state and examines data across their entire record—vital signs, medical history, demographics, lab results, and more. By looking at the patient as a whole, the model can flag patients who might not be showing obvious health problems, like those with low blood pressure or a fast heart rate, so that rapid response teams can intervene quickly. "It's like the machine is rounding on you constantly,” said Andy Anderson, MD, EVP and chief medical and quality officer at RWJBarnabas. “We've been able to identify patients, intervene early, and save lives. We've seen some really significant results and patients who might otherwise have died because we were able to detect them earlier."   Congratulations, folks!   Read more: https://lnkd.in/g6AVy8fg

Infusion appointments are complex. They’re often several hours long, they require the coordination of several clinicians and resources, and they come at an especially complicated time in patients’ lives. With so many factors in the mix, it’s easy for infusion chairs to go unused and for patients to spend unnecessary time waiting for care. By automating and fine-tuning infusion schedules based on factors like historical demand, staffing patterns, and clinic resources, our friends at PeaceHealth, Asante, and University of Iowa Health Care saw patient volume increase up to 20%, patient wait times reduced by up to 41%, and gross income increase up to 15%. Better for patients, better for providers. Great work, everyone! Read more: https://lnkd.in/gHmFDMEr

Did you know that early detection increases the five-year survival rate for breast cancer by 80%? Mammograms are the best method for detecting breast cancer, but their success depends on regular screenings, which have been disrupted since the pandemic began more than four years ago. To help more patients spot cancer early, Community Health Network and Froedtert Health used automated outreach to get folks scheduled for screenings when they were due or overdue. More than 4,500 people received a mammogram as a result, with breast cancer identified in 27 of those individuals. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gr3F57Mg

Happy National Homemade Cookies Day 🍪 Few treats beat the humble chocolate chip cookie. We figure if you make your way to Verona to see us, you ought to have one homemade. And if you can’t get here, consider this your message from the universe to treat yourself today. Here’s one of our culinary team’s favorite recipes—they call it “the gold standard.” Full instructions here: https://lnkd.in/etB8Yvst

Our friends at The Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia used MyChart to offer interactive and individualized care plans that guide patients through the experience of managing their care at home. The care plans—available on patients’ phones and online—include education, check-in questionnaires, and reminders to complete prescribed tasks, along with ways for patients to track the progression of their health over time. Already, patients have communicated to RMH that their care plans help them feel more confident and in control of their health. Congrats, folks! Read more: https://lnkd.in/gkswCEQh

In 2021, pollution was linked to more than 700,000 deaths of children under five and 17,000 deaths of children ages 5 to 14. Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust (GOSH), a pediatric hospital in London, is working to change that by using air quality alerts in Epic to help clinicians and families account for the risks of pollution in the course of a child’s care. “GOSH is too small an institution to impact air quality nationally—our goal was to show what is possible by combining environmental data with clinical data in Epic and to share our story so others can replicate and further develop on this simple idea,” said Mark Hayden, MD, pediatric intensivist and medical information officer at GOSH. “Complacency is an unhealthy emotion—but so is despair. With this initiative we are working to maintain hope and help others do the same.” Keep up the good work! Read more: https://lnkd.in/gWWDA8tF

Fall is officially in the air—time to put out your decorative pumpkins and scarecrows. Bonus points if they’re combined. Happy spooky season from our campus scarecrow 🎃

As part of our commitment to accessibility, we’re developing tools to reduce cognitive processing for clinicians. That means understanding each clinician’s use of Epic, prioritizing the tools they use most, and tucking away the rest. We call the project Simplify. Recognizing that one size will never fit all, we’re empowering clinicians to further personalize their Epic experience to their unique needs. Clinicians can select parts of the software to hide or collapse and rearrange screen elements to streamline their workflows according to how they work best. This helps them focus on essential functions—enhancing their overall experience and efficiency. Look for more from Simplify in the coming year. 

Advances in tech have made it possible to care for patients in the comfort of their home—from low-acuity monitoring all the way to hospital-level care. Last year alone, patients in the Epic community avoided 15,000 inpatient days through hospital-at-home programs. We talked with Mass General Brigham, Baptist Health System KY & IN, and NYU Langone Health to learn how their at-home programs have reduced hospital stays and readmission rates while improving outcomes. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gK3v7d4U