NYC Health + Hospitals Introduces Electronic Medical Record System at One Hospital and Upgrades System at Three Others
Electronic Medical Record Will Improve Care and Empower Patients Revenue Cycle Technology Will Improve Efficiency, Maximize Revenue
Oct 31, 2018
NYC Health + Hospitals today announced the successful launch of its advanced electronic medical record system at NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull and 10 community health centers and neighborhood clinics in Brooklyn. This marks the first implementation of the system that integrates both clinical and revenue cycle modules of the customized Epic medical record system, which has been dubbed “H2O,” a creative abbreviation of “Health + Hospitals Online,” following a competitive in-house naming competition.
Concurrently, the public health system also retrofitted the already installed electronic medical record systems at three other hospitals—NYC Health + Hospitals/Coney Island, /Elmhurst, and /Queens—and another 15 health centers and neighborhood clinics in Queens and Brooklyn with the new revenue cycle module.
Taking place largely over the weekend of October 20, the implementations and subsequent testing went very smoothly. Combined, the four hospitals and 25 community-based ambulatory care sites mean that 14,000 active users will now be working with the newly enhanced Epic electronic medical record/revenue cycle system.
“Successful implementations are possible only following an incredible amount of planning and hard work,” said Kevin Lynch, senior vice president and chief information officer for NYC Health + Hospitals. “We have diligently created a good design-build-test-train-and-implementation process that has resulted in this effort. We see our energetic, enthusiastic staff using H2O effectively to provide patient care.”
“I am so proud of our amazing IT team for pulling this off,” said Mitchell Katz, MD, the health system’s president and chief executive officer. “I am equally grateful to all of our clinicians who contributed their time to build a system that would improve our health care delivery and to all of our staff who sat through hours of training so that they can successfully use the new system.”
Among the new technology’s features:
- MyChart is the patient portal that puts patients’ medical history at their fingertips. Patients can manage their health online by using a smartphone, tablet, or laptop to view medical test results, request prescription refills, send messages to the care team, and access appointment information. Already popular among thousands of patients at NYC Health + Hospitals/Coney Island, /Elmhurst, and /Queens, MyChart will now also be available and promoted to the patients of NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull and 10 community health centers and neighborhood clinics in Brooklyn.
- Sophisticated decision-support tools equip providers with alerts to prevent medication errors, avoid duplicative and unnecessary tests, and keep patients preventive health screenings on schedule.
- The revenue cycle product is projected to help the health system capture an additional 5 percent of adjusted patient revenue—or up to $142 million in revenue, based on FY 2016 patient volume. (The expected increase of 5 percent in adjusted patient revenue is based on the experience of other national and local health systems that have already implemented the product.) Among the expected benefits are improved clinical documentation to support billed services, reduced claims denials, and accelerated reimbursements.
The seamless integration with Epic’s electronic medical records allows for simplified billing, since items are recognized as billable at the same time they are ordered. And it paves the way for powerful population health goals through more refined data on clinical groupings of patients.
Plans to create a single unified information technology platform that improves the patient and provider experience while also assisting in more effective revenue capture were announced in May 2017. The rollout took place as planned—in the fourth quarter of 2018—and on budget.
The public health system’s next scheduled launch will take place in spring 2019 at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue and /Harlem, along with 19 community health centers and neighborhood clinics in Manhattan.
Epic’s suite of health care IT products is recognized as “best in KLAS” (by an independent organization that monitors IT developments). The combined, integrated electronic medical record and revenue cycle products are used by some of the top health care systems across the country, including Kaiser Permanente, Cleveland Clinic, Partners Health Care, and Sutter Health. Independent analysis from PricewaterhouseCoopers concluded that an integrated platform was the best model for NYC Health + Hospitals, noting the industry trend toward such integration.
NYC Health + Hospitals is undergoing one of the largest Epic implementations in the country that will ultimately unify 40,000 users in more than 70 patient care sites.