Byline: JAY GREENE
Oakwood Healthcare, a four-hospital system based in Dearborn, has signed a contract with Epic Systems Corp., a Verona, Wis.-based information technology company, to purchase its suite of electronic health record and financial information systems.
The entire cost of the four-year project, including Epic licensing fees, hardware and employee training, is expected to total $60 million, said Paula Smith, Oakwood's chief information officer.
But Medicare's electronic health record incentive payments to Oakwood, which start in 2012 for hospitals and physicians who comply with federal meaningful use guidelines, are expected to pay for half the project's costs, Smith said.
'We decided to move up our five-year implementation timetable for the upgrades to take advantage of the incentive payments,' Smith said.
Several other hospitals in Southeast Michigan use Epic, including Royal Oak-based William Beaumont Hospitals and the University of Michigan Health Systems in Ann Arbor.
UM Health Systems bought Epic's ambulatory, revenue cycle, financial and emergency department information system last summer. UM Health plans on adding Epic's inpatient, pharmacies and medical record systems in 2013, said Jocelyn DeWitt, its CIO.
'We are right on track to have the full ambulatory system installed by August 2012,' said DeWitt, adding that the entire Epic system will be completed in 2014. Of the $100 million cost of the system, UM expects to receive about $50 million in federal incentive payments.
Most other health systems in Southeast Michigan have installed or are in the process of buying a variety of information systems. They include Henry Ford Health System, St. John Providence Health System, Detroit Medical Center, St. Joseph Mercy Health System and its parent Trinity Health.
'It will be very positive for the organizations because the data they will have to treat patients will be very robust,' DeWitt said. 'You are reporting out on various quality metrics, and this (encourages) you to pay really close attention to quality.'
Some of Oakwood's 300 different programs, purchased from 50 vendors, that run its patient care, finance and clinical information systems were originally installed in the 1980s and updated over time, Smith said.
Because Oakwood bought each system individually, Smith said, they required multiple interfaces to communicate with each other that increased operating costs to maintain. Oakwood's information technology department has grown to 200 people, Smith said.
'With our move to Epic, we can simplify, reduce costs and don't need all those bodies to make it work,' said Smith, adding that it is too early to know how many staff members will be needed when the entire system is installed in 2014.
Joe Diederich, Oakwood's COO, said the new system also will increase the amount of data available to staff, improving quality.
'Right now we don't have all the physician notes in the patient record, and we don't have it in real time,' Smith said. 'Now the information will be available immediately.'
Oakwood selected Epic through a recommendation from its consultants, Santa Rosa Consulting in Southfield.
DeWitt said more hospital systems are buying Epic because the company's full 'enterprise' system allows competing hospitals to share patient data through Epic Everywhere program.
Besides Oakwood, UM and Beaumont, Grand Rapids-based Spectrum Health Systems, and McLaren Health Care and Hurley Medical Center, both in Flint, use Epic, DeWitt said.
Diederich said Oakwood plans to install Epic in three phases over the next four years. During the first phase, from 2011 to 2013, the Epic inpatient clinical and financial systems will be installed at Oakwood's four hospitals, he said.
The ambulatory information systems at physician offices and outpatient centers will be installed in 2013 and 2014. Laboratory and cardiology departments will be installed in 2014.
'Diederich said 80 Oakwood employees, including 40 information technology workers and 40 clinical department staffers, will be trained to operate the Epic system.
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