What Is an Epic EMR System? and Why Should You Use One?

Shannon Jackson-Barnes | 23/07/2024

What is an Epic EMR System and Why Should You Use One?

Healthcare facilities need a reliable, robust electronic medical record (EMR) system to run a successful practice. This software makes it easier to manage the patient lifecycle, monitor revenue and billing cycles, schedule appointments, and more. The most widespread medical EMR software today is Epic, which has been around since 1979 and has more than 250 million patient records on file.

In this article, you will learn what an Epic EMR system is, how it works, and how to decide if this software is right for your practice.

Key Takeaways:

An Epic EMR system is software that stores patient records and handles tasks such as managing the digital patient experience.
The main advantages of an Epic EMR system are the ability to improve patient outcomes, streamline the flow of data, and ensure compliance.
Whether an Epic EMR system is right for you depends on the size of your practice, your budget, and your staffing requirements.

What Is the Epic EMR System?

An Epic EMR (electronic health record) system is software that enables healthcare providers to store and manage electronic health records. It stores not only patient data but also their interactions with healthcare providers. Details such as names, addresses, and treatment history are commonly found in an EMR system.

These days, most Epic EMR systems are deployed in the cloud. This means users can pay a subscription fee to access the software over the internet in a web browser. It is still possible to deploy the software locally, but this practice is becoming less common.

As well as storing patient records, this type of healthcare software has modules to perform various front- and back-end functions. The Continuing Care module allows healthcare providers to prepare and manage long-term care plans for patients after they leave a facility. Meanwhile, the Specialty Care module consolidates all specialist patient data into one place.

How Does the Epic EMR System Work?

The Epic EMR system works by storing patient data in a proprietary database known as the Cache Database. One of the benefits of big data in healthcare is the ability to retrieve vital data quickly, which Epic does quite well. You can also host data locally onsite or in the cloud.

The MyChart portal is the main component of the Digital Patient Experience module. Patients use this portal to schedule and prepare for appointments, attend virtual appointments, monitor the queue in waiting rooms, and more. Aside from the web browser version, patients can also use Android and iOS versions.

The Interoperability module streamlines the process of transferring patients across systems. For example, the software allows patients to transfer data from one healthcare provider to another and link their data to approved Community Partners.

As part of your digital transformation in healthcare, you may use an Epic EMR system to manage:

Access & Revenue Cycle
Acute and Inpatient Care
Advancing Medicine
Artificial Intelligence
Health Plans
Population Health
Specialty Care
Primary Care
Patient Flow
Analytics, Insights, & Discovery

What Are the Advantages of Using Epic EMR Software?

There are many advantages to incorporating Epic EMR software into your medical practices. You can more easily diagnose and treat patients, streamline the flow of data across systems, and comply with strict data privacy and data protection laws. Let’s look at these advantages in greater detail.

Improve Patient Outcomes

Patients require immediate and ongoing care to receive the best possible care. Epic EMR software has patient monitoring features to help facilitate this goal. This includes onboarding patients to Epic’s patient portal, administering medication and treatment, and updating a patient’s medical history.

Furthermore, Epic EMR software helps improve patient outcomes by giving them the necessary tools and resources to access additional services, including rehab, social and community care services, and behavioral health plans. This way, healthcare providers can be confident their patients are in good hands – both inside and outside of their system.

Streamline the Flow of Data Between Systems

Healthcare providers often need to interact with multiple departments in their practice. For example, if a patient is transferred from the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) to the Inpatient Department (ID), the ID team needs to know what medication and treatment the patient has already received to continue providing care.

Epic EMR software helps streamline the flow of data by consolidating all patient data into one secure, unified, convenient location. If one department needs to access data from another, they can use the same software to get up to speed.

Likewise, if another healthcare provider requires information from another, they can do so – with the right permissions – by connecting to the Epic EMR system.

Comply With Strict Data Privacy and Data Protection Laws

Data protection standards, such as the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), have strict requirements regarding how companies collect, store, and manage personally identifiable information (PII).

Under these laws, healthcare organizations must follow strict guidelines when collecting and storing patient information. The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) states that companies must allow data subjects to limit the use and disclosure of sensitive personal information.

An Epic system helps ensure compliance with regional data protection laws. It gives healthcare providers and patients greater control over what data is collected, how it is managed, and how it is shared.

Furthermore, the software has its own data security measures. These include data encryption, role-based access controls, user authentication, and more.

Is an Epic EMR System Right for Your Business?

Whether an Epic EMR system is right for you depends on the size of your practice, your budget, and your staffing requirements. Ideally, your EMR system should be able to achieve patient care that would otherwise not be possible.

Evaluate the Size of Your Practice

The size of your practice will have a strong influence on the type of EMR software that is right for you. These factors include the number of staff and specialist departments, your existing hardware and software stack, and how many patients you regularly see.

Generally speaking, Epic medical software is considered a wise choice for larger medical facilities such as hospitals. This is largely due to the vast quantity of functions that the software has to offer. While its breadth and scope are impressive, it does make the software less accessible to smaller clinics, as they may not need all of the features in a particular module.

Epic EMR also has fewer specialty modules than other EMR providers, with a total of 24. By contrast, Cerner has more than 50 specialty modules, so more than double.

Consider Upfront and Ongoing Costs

Determining the cost of an Epic EMR system is not easy as the company does not openly advertise its prices. In practice, this makes sense. It would be way too hard for Epic to provide a fixed-price solution for each of their modules. Their business is designed to cater to the individual needs of different practices.

The best way to evaluate the cost of an Epic EHR system is to contact the company directly and speak to a sales representative. Your pricing will vary based on your:

Storage requirements: Storing data in the cloud is generally cheaper than storing data onsite, as you do not need to worry about ongoing infrastructure costs such as climate control and insurance.
Number of modules: Naturally, the more modules you need to deploy, the more expensive your subscription will be.
Staff training: This is more of an indirect cost, but the time and effort spent on training staff to use the software is another expense to track.

Think About Staffing Requirements

There is more to procuring Epic EMR software than picking the right modules. You must also have staff who can use the software properly and safely.

By providing staff software training, you minimize the risk of misuse and eliminate potential friction caused by employees not wanting to embrace new healthcare technology. However, consider the cost of hiring a certified EHR system software trainer.

Depending on your staffing requirements, you may need to outsource your software maintenance needs to a trusted third party. An outsourced application support and maintenance team can remotely support your software to add new features, address security issues, optimize performance, and perform database management.

At Orient Software, our team of dedicated professionals can provide system administration services to keep your Epic EMR system running smoothly. We can manage every aspect of your software, such as allocating resources, scheduling software updates, and protecting your data from emergencies.

Get the Most Out of Your Epic EMR Software

An Epic EMR system is a great way to store electronic medical records and handle day-to-day activities in your practice. It can help improve the patient experience, streamline the flow of data across departments, and increase the accuracy of disease diagnosis.

However, like any technological investment, maintaining your Epic EMR software is vital to achieving your business goals. Maintenance and support services by Orient Software can help keep your software running smoothly as planned.