Current Market Problems
Across the industry, health systems make significant investments in their EHR systems, as they are the default technology used by hospitals and healthcare systems for patient communications. Clinicians expect to work as effectively as possible in the EHR, like Epic, and the system serves as the single source for patient records. Likewise, IT teams want to maximize the use of this core technology in their tech stack.
The challenge? Gaps in communication. Failure to successfully engage patients across pre-care and post-care must be addressed in order to provide the reliable, digital and retail-like healthcare experience patients have come to expect. Plus, point solutions create more complexity with IT. The answer? An Epic EHR integration solution.
Five Problems You Can Solve with an Epic Integration Solution
1. Inefficient Clinical Workflows
Switching between multiple applications frustrates clinicians, requires extra steps to complete a task and may cause duplicate data entry errors for staff that are already overwhelmed. More than 50 percent of providers experience burnout due to administrative tasks.
2. Multiple Technology Vendors
Interoperability is of major concern to healthcare organizations when managing multiple solutions. The problem is that not all vendor solutions communicate directly with the Epic system as the single holder of record. Too many point solutions creates an unnecessarily complex IT infrastructure, burdening IT resources and increasing costs during a time of financial strain. Huge investments are being made in the global healthcare interoperability market, with projections reaching 5.7 billion by 2026 from 2.9 billion in 2021.
3. Inefficient Patient Communication Processes
One-way communication takes extra time and resources for both patients and providers. Without automated two-way communication, miscommunications and data tracking lapses are more likely.
4. Lack of Scalable Technology Solutions
Integrating new features can be time consuming and require inconvenient one-off projects. In addition, minimal integration with Epic makes it more difficult to manage.
5. Poor Message Deliverability Rates
Current point solutions are built on dated technology, significantly reducing the percentage of messages that reach patients. In the case of one health system, prior to implementing CipherHealth, 5.7% of Community Health Network’s messages tied to EPIC and automated out of the EHR were being blocked and not reaching patients — specifically, 25,000 messages per month out of 435,000 attempted messages, the total monthly SMS traffic. Messages that are not delivered leave patients open to missing important health checks and negatively affects the patient experience.
The bottom line? There is a clear and present need for versatile and complementary technology for EHRs that provides more than a point solution to fill one-off communication gaps. Consolidating vendors and data can lead to greater efficiencies, better information delivery and enhanced operational approaches. In addition, this consolidation can deliver the actionable insights hospitals and other healthcare providers want. Not only is this more practical, it is also more cost effective. Nearly half of CFOs and revenue cycle VPs in a recent survey said their organizations are behind their 2022 healthcare revenue goals. Customized outreach programs tied to Epic integration create the potential to reach and meet the needs of every patient during their healthcare journey, a necessary component of expanding patient engagement and improving patient care at scale.
