Electronic health records are rapidly becoming the face of healthcare industry today, allowing the unification of a vast number of users from across numerous sites in a state, country, or a region. But the implementation of EHR systems is not an easy task and challenges abound in the road to rollout. The same has been the case with the New York City Health + Hospitals (NYC H+H), famed as U.S.’s largest public health system.
The project has seen several ups and downs in the past years and continues to be one of the most talked-about initiative that has launched a combination of revenue cycle modules as well as customized electronic health record systems. The initiative has also become another EHR system with a budget surpassing $1 billion; earlier this year, Mayo Clinic had recently rolled out its modernization project aimed at replacing its legacy systems with modern EHR and IT infrastructure, a project that cost the company an estimated $1.5 billion.
The scope of the NYC Health + Hospitals is also vast – it will help unify 40,000 users from across more than 70 patient care establishments. The Epic EHR and revenue cycle tools in NYC Health + Hospitals has been launched at 10 clinics and community health centers in Brooklyn and at a production environment in the Woodhull facility. This made it the first implementation of the converged EHR system that had both clinical as well as the revenue cycle modules.
The system also connected electronic health record systems already installed at its Queens, Elmhurst, and Coney Island hospitals along with 15 clinical and healthcare centers in Brooklyn and Queens to the new revenue cycle module. This means that 14,000 current users of electronic health record systems across these sites will now work with the new system. The next scheduled launch of NYC H+H is spring 2019 at its Harlem and Bellevue hospitals and 19 clinics and community health centers in Manhattan.
