Fast Tracking Epic Integration for a New Pediatric Facility

An Epic Implementation Story: Fast Tracking Epic Integration for a New Pediatric Facility

The Client

A new Children’s Hospital Epic implementation and integration to an Acute Care Anchor Facility

The Facility

• 50-bed, pediatric-specific greenfield
• 108 physicians, 300 full time staff members

Results

• Matched experts with experience, skills, and certifications for a fast tracked deployment and integration of Epic to meet this community's pediatric care needs
• Go-live was on-time, under budget, and with no critical issues
• Strong training, preparation, and testing enabled the accelerated timeline

More about CereCore Services

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The Challenge

A new Children's Hospital was needed in a community where the only local option for pediatric patients was a nearby acute facility primarily for adult clinical care. This project called for adding the pediatric facility onto the acute hospital's Epic solution which involved establishing workflows for pediatric clinical protocols, hardware readiness and set-up, patient movement, and charging between the children’s and adult facilities. 

CereCore assisted with converting the ambulatory and outpatient facilities to Epic a few years prior to the new Children’s Hospital initiative and could rely on our methodologies and documentation for planning. Therefore, the main challenges of the work were focused on clinical workflow re-design and ancillary services integration for the pediatric hospital.

The Children’s Hospital wanted to begin using Epic following an expedited implementation of approximately eight months from the kickoff date. The challenge was to bring the pediatric facility live on Epic for opening day. With the public excitement and media coverage of the new facility opening, all eyes were on the project to be successful.

How We Helped

Assembling the Right Team for the Job
A CereCore Project Manager and Director highly specialized in Epic implementations were pivotal to this success story.

• With the right expertise, these roles were essential to oversee all project activities and partner with on-site operations to keep the project on time and on budget. CereCore worked closely together to map out the project tools, schedule, and hours needed.

CereCore analysts with skills directly applicable to this implementation understood the necessary workflow changes.

• CereCore built Epic according to the pediatric population while also making design recommendations based on best practices, clinical needs and integration specifications.

CereCore partnered with project managers at the facility to ensure timelines, milestones, and deliverables were coordinated with construction timelines.

• CereCore and on-site IT operations mapped out the technical and hardware needs for the project, designed the floor plans for the hardware placement, then tested all equipment before it was distributed to the new facility.

Project Highlights

• On-site “Login Labs” and real-time extra help/training for physicians and nurses continued for one week following Go-Live
• Preparation for common challenges
• Agile governance and decision making
• Time savings thanks to proven tools, trackers, and templates
• Extensive testing plans, leadership updates, project team meetings, and more

The Solution

When the facility opened its doors to the children and families in the community, the Epic system was built out, tested, and ready to help providers and hospital staff provide excellent care to their patients. Better yet, the project was delivered without any critical issues at go-live and was under budget.