Going for Epic Gold Stars.
With this summer’s Olympics postponed, we may not have superstar athletes to cheer on, but we’re still reaching for the gold – Gold Stars, that is.
Epic recently awarded Houston Methodist its prestigious Gold Stars Level 9, placing us among the top organizations using Epic tools and functionality and recognizing us as a leader in health care technology. Less than 9% of Epic’s 500 customers worldwide hold this distinction.
“Kudos to the team on this great accomplishment,” said Dr. Marc Boom, Houston Methodist CEO and president.
“It’s fantastic to see your hard work has resulted in the prestigious Epic Gold Stars Level 9 recognition. Let’s go onward to Level 10.”
The Gold Stars program evaluates our use of more than 700 Epic features in areas including physician productivity, population health management, patient experience, nursing productivity, mobile tools, patient access and more. Level 9 recognition. Let’s go onward to Level 10.”
Building on a pattern of success.
Every year, Epic evaluates how we use their technology and the features we have adopted. Since our first go-live in 2016, we’ve maintained Gold Stars Level 8 out of 10.
This is a testament to the collaboration and partnership between IT and physicians, clinicians and staff systemwide. Countless hours are spent selecting, building and implementing the tools and resources that make our system better.
Of course, Epic wouldn’t be a success without the more than 32,000 HM employees and community providers using Epic who take the time to understand and adopt the enhancements to the system.
“Houston Methodist is an innovator and leader in the use of technology to improve clinical and financial outcomes,” said Eric Danowski, an Epic implementation executive.
“You demonstrate the use of an EHR that less than 9% of the global Epic community has achieved. This Gold Stars recognition represents yet one more way you focus on leading medicine.”
The results are in.
In July, Houston Methodist became only the second health care system globally to adopt 100% of Epic’s security functionality. This demonstrates our commitment to implementing measures to help keep our patient data safe.
Other notable accomplishments and improvements with Epic include:
- Nearly 675,000 patients and their loved ones have a Houston Methodist MyChart account.
- Patient wait time at check-in has decreased by 11.6%.
- Exchanged more than 32 million patient records with other organizations.
- Nurses have used Rover (Epic on mobile devices) to scan more than 300,000 medications.
- Providers have placed over 3,500 orders in the past three months with Epic mobile apps (Haiku and Canto).
- Physicians, nurses and other clinicians have sent nearly 300,000 HIPAA-safe text messages through Secure Chat.
Seeking excellence: Epic Update.
As with any system, it’s important to continually adopt new functionality. This gives us the best tools so we can stay focused on keeping the patient at the center of everything we do.
Here are some features launching with the Sept. 20 update:
- An easier way to access the Epic Learning Home – your library of tip sheets, exercise booklets, news and training resources.
- Hey Epic!, a virtual voice assistant (like Siri or Alexa), available for providers who use Epic mobile.
- The new Storyboard look and feel, available for radiology.
- Updated colors for appointments on the schedule, to help identify open time slots.
A perfect 10.
The Gold Stars program is evaluated annually, with requirements and criteria updated to ensure organizations are consistently improving. Like champion athletes, we never stop preparing and reaching for excellence. Our sights are now focused on Level 10 Gold Stars.