By the middle of 2015, every Baptist Medical Group physician and Baptist Memorial Hospital will use Baptist OneCare, Baptist’s electronic health record system developed by Epic Systems. The transition to this electronic health record system is a massive effort that will require the coordination of hundreds of Baptist colleagues, disciplines, entities and systems.
“When hospitals go live, tens of thousands of people will need to be trained,” said Dr. Jack Brown, chief medical information officer for Baptist. “That is what we’ve calculated. Every nurse, everyone who touches the patient, needs to be trained on how to use this system. This includes finance, not just clinical. The finance part replaces a system that we’ve used in the hospital for more than 25 years. That’s a huge change.”
So how will Baptist execute this huge undertaking? In waves.
“We have go-live … set for Jan. 1 … for the Minor Meds,” said Tim Donaldson, director of the Epic technical team. “We have about 80-plus physician practice locations with BMG that will go live on Jan. 2. The first wave of hospitals – Memphis, Restorative Care, Women’s and Collierville – are scheduled to go live on March 11, 2014. And then we have subsequent rollouts … taking into account BMG foundations and various other groups.”
The first wave comprises ambulatory clinics, the second wave metro-Memphis hospitals and subsequent waves will include regional hospitals. In the meantime, various Baptist departments and entities are assessing processes, developing new workflows and starting in-depth training to prepare for go-live.
“Our work is supported by hundreds of subject matter experts who have worked with us to develop and build the content for 57 medical specialties and 20 hospital-based outpatient departments,” said Chris Hopper, director of the ambulatory team. “They [clinical staff] have been intimately involved for more than nine months to create the content they need to provide care for their patients.”
The goal is to make go-live as seamless and painless as possible for clinicians and patients.
“Adapting from a paper system to an electronic system is never easy,” said Dr. Brown. “The difference here is, first of all, the preparation prior to go-live. The work that’s going on right now at Baptist at literally crazy warp speed involving hundreds of people is to make sure that when we do go live, it will be easier.”
The training for Baptist OneCare will take place in waves as well. A future article will discuss the training plan for physicians, facilities and entities.
Wave 1 Go Live—Jan. 1, 2014
- Minor Med clinics
- Stern Cardiovascular Foundation
- Memphis Lung Physician Foundation
- Baptist Medical Group Tennessee practices (metro Memphis and regional)
- Baptist Medical Group Mississippi practices
Wave 2 Go Live—March 11, 2014
- Baptist Memphis
- Baptist Restorative Care
- Baptist Women’s Hospital
- Baptist Collierville
Wave 3 Go Live—Aug. 1, 2014
- NEA Baptist Clinic
- GI Specialists Foundation
- Family Physician Group Foundation
- Newest BMG clinics
Subsequent Waves
- Sept. 1, 2014—Baptist DeSoto, NEA Baptist and Baptist Tipton
- Sept. 1, 2014—Boston Baskin Cancer Foundation, Family Cancer Center Foundation and Integrity Oncology Foundation
- Dec. 1, 2014—Baptist Golden Triangle, Baptist North Mississippi and Baptist Union County
- March 1, 2015—Baptist Union City and Baptist Huntingdon
- June 1, 2015—Baptist Booneville and Baptist Rehab-Germantown