EpicCare EHR Software
Introduction
The technology has made it possible for hospitals to create and manage health information digitally. EHR is real-time, patient-centric records that enable health professionals’ access to patient information instantly and securely. EHR contains the patient’s medical history, enabling them to improve the patient’s quality of care and experience. EHR is created to enable health organizations to share information with other health organizations and care providers in different departments. There are different EHR systems applied in medical institutions. EpicCare is one of the EHR software that health organizations use to manage daily operations. EpicCare electronic medical record has 40 years of experience and supports more than 250 million patient records. There are different features associated with EpicCare EMR.
Overview
EpicCare EMR is developed by Epic Systems Corporation, a privately managed healthcare software company in the United States. The company was created in 1979 and has developed to impact America and the world through medical records and data management systems. The company is a health technology leader and does not sell its products and services directly to individual physicians. The company develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells electronic medical records software. The company’s main area includes a database management system through software applications associated with patient care. Epic software applications are only accessible through epic hub organizations, allowing healthcare organizations to access the products and services.
Epic applications are created to improve the quality of care by supporting various healthcare functions. The applications allow health organizations to register and schedule patients through doctors, nurses, and emergency team clinical systems. The application also includes systems for lab personnel, pharmacists, radiologists, and billing system for insurers. The company offers cloud hosting services for customers to maintain their own servers and consultant services to customers who wish to boost their services. Various United States media stations have ranked the company services due to its massive implementation in hospitals and medical schools. The company faces competition from companies such as Cerner, MEDITECH, Althenahealth, and IBM. Competition is high due to the implementation cost and maintenance cost of Epic EHR.
Costs
Epic EHR records are one of the most expensive health record software in the United States market. Healthcare organizations buying on-premises software face the highest expenses from the hardware and IT. These companies need individual servers and other IT infrastructures to support the effective installation of EpicCare software. Installation of the Epic EHR system costs up from $99 million to $999. The software includes EMR monthly subscriptions ranging from $1,000 for small and medium-sized organizations and $10,000 to $100,000 per month for large health organizations. The subscriptions are either paid on a user basis or subscription basis. Organizations that need specific features incur customization costs to install features user interface changes, configurable dashboards, tracking capabilities, and other features. Customization costs range from $2,500, $10,000, and $25,000 for minimal, standard full customization, respectively.
Epic EMR offers a data migration service, which increases the costs of product ownership. Organizations may opt to transfer data without Epic services to cut down the costs. Data migration expenses depend on the amount of data transferred, the software, migration tools, complication of data, and the gap between the systems involved. Data migration costs range from $500 to $25,000 for 1,000 records to 1,000,000 and above records respectively. Other costs include training costs to enable effective operation of the software and increase effectiveness. Other costs included in Epic software include the upgrade costs, including an additional cost of about 40 to 49 percent of the initial hardware cost.
Components of the System
The EpicCare EMR software is widely used in the United States and the entire world because of its satisfying components. The software’s key features include the patient’s portal, which allows patients to access their information. Patients and their families use this feature to communicate with the physicians to request help, set an appointment, and attend e-visits. The patient portal allows the patients to receive individualized treatment plans through they experienced more patient-centric care. Telehealth is a major feature that also improves the quality of care by monitoring the patients. Telehealth allows the physicians to treat the patients remotely through different tools, including the ICU monitors, chronic disease management, telecardiology services, and video meetings. Telehealth feature enables physicians to provide care to patients in different institutions, including prisons, and conduct follow-ups.
Positives
EpicCare EMR is widely used due to its ability to improve patient and physicians satisfaction. The software allows organizations to manage information from patients, physicians, departments, and organizations. EpicCare EMR features include an analytics feature that allows individuals to investigate their patients’ conditions by combining clinical, financial, and operational details. The software provides managed care through which various services related to care, such as insurance, are assessed. Other features include revenue cycle management that allows organizations to manage payments through a streamlined billing system and payment system. The interoperability feature allows medical information sharing across health organizations that use EHR systems. The community health portal allows users to keep the community informed.
Negatives
EpicCare EMR is not perfect despite having the largest share of the United States’ healthcare software market. The software includes comes with frequent updates, which reduces its effectiveness in improving care. The updates come with technical issues that persist for days, reducing health professionals’ ability to use the information to improve care effectively. EpicCare software includes limitations to export, print, and manipulate data to influence the type of care. The uses experience difficulties, which make them spend more time on the machines, thus delaying care. Most of the system users complain about customer support, which does not help them fix technical issues. These limitations lead to delayed care, which leads to more patient risks and unsatisfied physicians.
Literature Review
There exist few materials addressing the benefits of EpicCare software in healthcare organizations. Research conducted by Johnson III (2016) assesses Epic software’s advantages and disadvantages in providing meaningful use in healthcare institutions. The research discovered that Epic EMR software is effective in providing accurate and connected information in real-time. This capability allows patient safety through monitoring, tracking, and continuous care. The research also identifies hidden costs in vendor support and training. Other limitations of the software identified by the research include e-document management challenges and increased data entry. Foster and Fleece (2016) conducted another research that identifies specific modifications applicable to Epic systems to improve efficiency and surgeon satisfaction. The research concludes that Epic systems contain capabilities such as SmartSets that help physicians document and code various medical issues by integrating laboratory and radiology tests. Adoption of such capabilities by other EMR software can improve their efficiency in the provision of care.
Conclusion
EpicCare software is one of the best EMR software that enables medical organizations to manage medical data. The corporation is located in the United States and is ranked as the top health corporation. The software includes a patient portal feature that facilitates communication between the patient and the physicians. The System allows physicians to share information across departments and organizations, thus improving decision making. EpicCare EMR is limited by the high costs of implementation and maintenance. The software comes with frequent software updates that affect the provision of care and the quality of care. The software has, however, features not available to other medical software applications.
References
Johnson, R. J. (2016). A comprehensive review of an electronic health record system soon to assume market ascendancy: EPIC. J Healthc Commun, 1(4), 36. https://www.ehidc.org/sites/default/files/resources/files/a-comprehensive-review-of-an-electronic-health-record-system-soon-to-assume-market-ascendancy-epic.pdf
Foster, W. J., & Fleece, D. (2016). Hacking the EpicCare electronic health record system: How to make this widely used EHR system more efficient for high-volume vitreoretinal surgeons. Retina Today, 2016, 16-30. https://retinatoday.com/pdfs/0716RT_PA_Ave.pdf
Biering-Sørensen, F., Cohen, S., Rodriguez, G. M., Tausk, K., & Martin, J. (2018). Electronic medical record: data collection and reporting for spinal cord injury. Spinal cord series and cases, 4(1), 1-5. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41394-018-0106-3
Software | Epic. (2020). Retrieved 18 November 2020, from https://www.epic.com/software#PatientEngagement
Lavi, S. (2020). Epic Pricing Guide. Retrieved 18 November 2020, from https://www.itqlick.com/epiccare-emr/pricing#:~:text=Small%20and%20midsize%20practices%20can,%24999%2B%20per%20provider%20per%20month.
Guest, C. (2019). Top EHR Software Companies For 2020. Readdive. Retrieved from https://readdive.com/top-10-ehr-software-companies-in-2019/