Electronic Health Records (EHR, EMR)

In October 2018, Mayo Clinic achieved a historic milestone with the final Epic implementation in Florida and Arizona. The epic (pun intended) implementation of Epic across the Mayo Clinic’s network of 90 hospitals and clinics began in July 2017 when 24 of its sites in Wisconsin went live. Subsequently, campuses in Minnesota went live in November 2017, followed by Mayo’s Rochester facility in May 2018 and finally in Arizona and Florida. The Epic EHR rollout at Mayo Clinic was dubbed the Plummer Project in honour of Henry Plummer, MD, who developed a patient-centred health record at Mayo in 1907. While the movement to a single Epic EHR and revenue cycle management system to replace 3 separate EHR instances, multiple disparate revenue cycle systems and a total of 287 applications was impressive from a technical and execution standpoint, what was more impressive was the training of 51,000 Mayo Clinic employees to be onboard the Epic system. Mayo Clinic has a total of 65,000 employees of which 51,000 had to go through training in Epic as it was essential for their day-to-day duties and operations. Dr. Steve Peters, co-chair of the Plummer Project, shared lessons learnt from the EHR rollout in a Mayo Clinic Radio video in July last year: “We’ve learn a lot from the earlier implementations – we’ve modified the training and made it more focused to the tasks or some of the scenarios that an individual needs. We’ve increased the number and the training of the super-users – those are individuals embedded in the practice whether it’s a physician, nurse or desk staff who help to understand the local workflow rather than just how they navigate the tool. We then fine-tune where more support would be needed and which types of workflows. For example, moving from one setting to another from an outpatient to inpatient or emergency room to an interventional radiology procedure to the operating room, these are opposed kind of special challenges where we can focus some of the training and some of the build-up of Epic so that it is more easily done.” Dr. Patrick H. Luetmer, chair of Clinical Systems Oversight for Mayo Clinic, responsible for governance of the converged Epic electronic health record and of clinical departmental systems will be at the HIMSS Singapore eHealth & Health 2.0 Summit on April 24 2019 to share about the key lessons learnt from the massive EHR rollout. In particular, Dr. Luetmer will emphasise the importance of rigorous tracking of co-dependent projects and careful management of a separate team to support legacy systems prior to go lives. Keen to explore more about the lessons learnt from the Plummer Project? Sign up here to enjoy early bird rates for the upcoming HIMSS Singapore eHealth & Health 2.0 Summit held from April 23-24 2019!

One of Australia's largest juvenile justice departments will soon streamline its health services under a single Electronic Medical Record. Justice Health Victoria is working towards implementing Global Health’s MasterCare Electronic Medical Record (EMR) in the support of clinical workflows across mental health, primary care, and alcohol and other drug services in its centres. Specifically, MasterCare EMR will be used by Justice Health clinicians to handle clients’ medical assessments and management plans, along with the monitoring and measuring of on-going service activity outcomes. MasterCare EMR comprises of an EMR and practice management solution with integration to MasterCare Data Warehouse for data analytics and ReferralNet for the secure exchange of clinical documents with external colleagues. According to a spokesperson for the Department of Justice and Community Safety, Justice Health Victoria had multiple programs in place for its youth justice system, which all needed to be streamlined into one platform. “This will ensure continuity in the healthcare services provided to young people in custody. Electronic medical records within the adult prison system are [and will continue to be] managed by Intrahealth,” the spokesperson told HITNA. The initial deployment will see the Department of Justice and Community Safety business unit roll out the Global Health solution for these three service divisions across Melbourne. This includes Malmsbury, Parkville and other community outlets around Melbourne across the youth justice sector. The Department of Justice and Community Safety spokesperson said the partnership came off the back of the Victorian Government’s $18.72 million investment for additional doctors, nurses and clinical staff to administer medication, as well as for extra allied health services. [Read more: SA Health to overhaul EPAS | Bass Coast Health integrates clinical and administrative system using MasterCare EMR] MasterCare EMR Product Manager Kye Cherian said the agreement will run for a minimum term of three years, with two further extension options. “It’s important to note that our project with Justice Health does not end here. Global Health and Justice Health are committed to continuing the partnership in order to further improve client care and data capture to support the continued improvement of Youth Justice Health services in Victoria,” Cherian said. Bass Coast Health also most recently equipped its healthcare facility with MasterCare EMR. Following rollout, the solution will be used by its clinicians to govern the assessment and management plans of clients, along with the monitoring and measuring of ongoing outcomes.

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