UMass hospitals launch $700 million EHR system

Newswire: Oct. 2, 2017.

Dateline: Worcester, Mass.

The University of Massachusetts Memorial Health Care hospital network launched its $700 million electronic medical records system two weels ago.

The new system, created by Epic Corp. of Verona, Wis., came online at 4:25 a.m. on Oct. 2. It will serve the hospital system’s entire network, spanning 13,000 healthcare professionals and many more patients. Already 3,000 have enrolled in it to access their records.

The new system replaces about 120 other software packages, but will still operate alongside 100 others that the University of Massachussetts Memorial Health system is keeping intact.

Tbe transition has required 700 contract employees to prepare the switchover, according to the chief clinical information officer for the hosital network. As the transition unfolds, physicians will see fewer patients and surgeons will be scheduled more time between operations in order to complete electronic records work.

The next three months are considered a stabilization period while UMass hospital employees use the system and ferret out problems within it. In January, UMass Memorial will upgrade to a newer version of Epic Corp’s software.

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