The start of the academic and fiscal year is always marked with change—new interns, new roles for residents, new fellows and faculty and new financial and operational goals. This July 1, 2016, was marked with added excitement in the Department of Medicine at The Johns Hopkins Hospital – a new dialysis service (Fresenius), a new pulmonary function testing system and, of course, the introduction of EPIC into inpatient operations.
Change is difficult, but change hardly describes the impact of the full implementation of Epic into our daily work environment. We are pleased to report the DOM appears to have weathered the initial phase of EPIC implementation well in part due to the efforts of Bayview sharing their experiences from December when they went live. This is no small achievement, particularly given the size of our hospital and the depth of this change.
Special appreciation is to be extended to the department’s core Epic implementation team for East Baltimore—Dr. Tim Niessen, Donna Beitler and Hailey James. Their tireless behind-the-scenes efforts may not be readily apparent—but their impact is deep and wide. Please join us in thanking them for their efforts.
Finally, any description of your efforts to plan for this implementation would greatly understate your time, energy, dedication and sacrifices to get the department—and JHH—to this point. Thank you, and a job well done by all!
We look forward to working with you as we continue the post-EPIC rollout optimization. For any immediate questions about EPIC in the inpatient setting, there are “red shirts” who will be staffing 24/7 for the next week and the EPIC Epicenter can be reached (24/7) at 2-2777.
-Carrie Herzke, MD, Associate Vice Chair of Inpatient Operations
-Matt Lautzenheiser, Clinical Administrator
-Ron Langlotz, Director of Nursing
