Care Connect for Community Physicians
As part of our continuing efforts to build an integrated health system, we are implementing Care Connect, an Epic Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system, across the entire organization.
In partnership with GRIPA, we are pleased to be among the many top health systems in the country to extend this best-in-class EMR and Practice Management offering to you, our credentialed, community physician practices.
Our Care Connect Community Physician Program provides you with much more than just a standard EMR. With Care Connect, you benefit from full training and ongoing technical support, GRIPA assistance to achieve Meaningful Use, and automatic upgrades to ICD-10 and future versions – to name just a few key benefits.
Whether you are looking to transition from a paper-based patient record system to an EMR, or it’s time to upgrade your existing EMR, Care Connect may be the perfect fit for you and your practice.
About Epic
Epic is widely recognized as the leader in the healthcare IT industry and its EMR is considered the most advanced, fully integrated electronic medical record on the market today. Epic’s graphical user interface connects functional “worlds” facilitating streamlined workflows and allowing users to jump easily between applications without signing in and out of multiple programs. Approximately one out of every four physicians in the US will use the Epic EMR when current rollouts are complete. This means well over 110 million real-time, electronic patient records will be immediately accessible across the US through the Epic Care Everywhere network. In Monroe County, nearly 80% of patients will eventually be a part of this network.
Approximately one out of every four physicians in the U.S. will use the Epic EMR when current rollouts are complete.
Epic has been recognized with over 20 awards from KLAS, an objective, third-party evaluating agency considered the “consumer reports of healthcare IT.” For the past 10 years, the Epic Ambulatory EMR has been ranked #1 by KLAS. Multiple Epic clients have won the HIMSS Davies Award for their use of Epic applications to help improve patient safety, increase efficiency and provide cost-effective healthcare.
Key Epic clients include:
- Cleveland Clinic
- Guthrie Healthcare System
- Geisinger Health System
- Johns Hopkins Medicine
- University of Rochester Medical Center
To participate in the Care Connect Community Physician Program, it is important for interested practices to fully understand the commitment and readiness required to undertake such a positive and dramatic transformation of their care delivery processes.
Leadership & financial commitment
Your practice’s leadership commitment to Care Connect will be essential to ensure the success of the Care Connect adoption, as well as the financial commitment to bring it to full fruition. Things to consider:
Strong physician leadership and commitment are required for success
Both the practice manager and a designated physician champion are needed to lead all practice staff to full adoption
The physician champion must have a good understanding of their practice’s operational controls and work processes
Embrace change, including disruption of office flow and work processes during implementation, as the entire practice moves forward into the digital world of Care Connect
The financial investment in the Care Connect Community Physician Program is greater than the obvious project costs Implicit costs include system set-up and learning activities, as well as the soft costs of reduced productivity during the initial learning curve
All members of the practice must understand that this learning curve can only be overcome through knowledge and persistent effort, which may require a reduced schedule for the first couple of weeks
Operational & technical readiness
Excellent operational readiness and technical competence will also be necessary for a smooth implementation of Care Connect. To ensure your practice is ready to subscribe to Care Connect, our support team will gladly work with you to conduct an initial assessment of your practice and answer all of your questions. Things to consider:
For a successful implementation, the practice should be fully staffed, running smoothly and not undergoing any significant changes.
Leadership and staff will need to be adaptable to substantial changes in the clinical workflows that are inherent in implementing Care Connect.
Your computer and network technology must meet the Rochester Regional Health requirements and be well supported by a qualified technician(s).