Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare will reportedly spend $54 million to integrate Epic’s EHR system in its 14 hospitals and more 70 physician offices, according to the Milwaukee Business Journal. The project will integrate clinical records between Wheaton Franciscan’s hospitals and its physician offices that has already been running on Epic since 2012. Currently, clinicians at Wheaton Franciscan facilities can only view patients records from across the system; however, they enter any documentation.
“Now from one hospital to the other, we can read records — we can see them — but they’re not integrated,” Hanson said. “And the office is not integrated with the inpatient side,” said Dr. Rita Hanson, senior vice president and chief medical officer.
Epic Project Details
In addition to integration, the project will include integrated patient registration, scheduling, admission, discharge, transfer and billing systems. The Epic implementation is scheduled to run over three years and Wheaton Franciscan has added 50 new position to staff 100 employees to work on the EHR project. The first go-live will be All Saints in January 2016 followed by Milwaukee-area Wheaton Franciscan facilities in May 2016. Upon go-live, Wheaton Franciscan will run one integrated EHR system rather than multiple EHRs for each hospital.
Long-term Savings of Moving to Epic
The $54 million cost of the EHR project will be spread over five years and is expected to enable long-term savings and will be more cost-effective than the current arrangement, according to Greg Smith, senior vice president and chief information officer. He said the new EHR system is expected to be cash-flow positive by its fourth year in service. Total costs includes:
– software
– hardware
– implementation
– third-party costs
– travel costs
– conversion costs
– charge-master consolidation
– consulting support
– device costs
– Epic Project team salaries
Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare has more than 100 sites in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois including 14 hospital campuses, three transitional and extended care facilities, two home health agencies, nearly 3,000 physicians, 70 clinic sites with more than 500 employed physicians, and more than 17,000 associates. The System also operates a housing division known as Franciscan Ministries with more than 2,600 units of assisted living and other housing.
