LCHC Streamlines Patient Care with EPIC Electronic Health Records (EHR) Optimization

LCHC Spearheads Electronic Healthcare Records (EHR) Innovation with EPIC – Improving Patient Records

Lynn Community Health Center (LCHC) is dedicated to providing top-quality healthcare services in our community. One key way we do this is by optimizing patient medical charts using EHR technology. Our medical experts leverage electronic health records (EHRs) to deliver comprehensive care.

In the evolving world of healthcare technology, LCHC has integrated an electronic health records (EHR) system called EPIC. It improves our patient records while it provides information, education, and ongoing support around these records.

EPIC is a leading healthcare information technology tool, and our in-house EPIC Content Program Manager, Laura Reid, shapes how we—and other healthcare providers throughout the country—utilize the system.

“It’s software that documents the entire patient’s visit, from start to finish,” says Reid. “From check-in, seeing the patient, registration, scheduling, all of those things to check out, and also our billing process.”

Let’s take a closer look at how LCHC adapts EHRs and EPIC’s collaborative capabilities to revolutionize patient care and enhance our record keeping.

What are the Benefits of Electronic Health Records (EHR) for Patients?

In a nutshell, electronic health records are digital versions of patients’ paper charts. They are a real-time, patient-centered system that makes information available to authorized users (like your healthcare provider).

EHRs contain a wealth of information beyond clinical data, making them a powerful tool for improving healthcare quality and patient outcomes in Lynn. They include a broader view of a patient’s care, and EHRs at Lynn are used to collect things like:

• Demographic information – such as a patient’s name, age, contact details, emergency contact, race, ethnicity, and preferred language
• A patient’s medical history – which could include past medical and surgical history, family medical history, immunization records, and things like allergies to foods and medications
• Relevant medication information – like current medications and dosages, prescription history, and over-the-counter medications and supplements
• Test results – for things like laboratory tests (blood tests, urinalysis, etc.), imaging results (x-rays, MRIs, CT scans), and biopsies or pathology reports
• Clinical notes – from your physician after each visit, nursing assessment observations, and/or specialist consultations
• Treatment plan details – such as treatment regimens, surgery and procedure records, or physical therapy and rehabilitation plans
• A patient’s vital signs – which include blood pressure readings, heart rate, body temperature, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation levels, and more
• Important insurance information – like provider and plan details, coverage information/eligibility, and prior authorization records
• Patient communications – for things like past and future appointments, doctor/patient e-mail exchanges, and telephone call logs and messages
• Advanced directives and consent forms – which include living wills, powers of attorney for healthcare, and consent forms for procedures and treatments
• Wellness and prevention information – including screenings and prevention measures, lifestyle factors (smoking and alcohol use, exercise, etc.), social determinants of health, and nutritional assessments

This is not an exhaustive list. Professionals like Laura Reid continue to refine electronic health records to improve efficiency and introduce more value-based care elements. But this description gives you an idea of just how comprehensive EHRs are in the hands of qualified medical experts.

How EPIC Streamlines Patient Care at Lynn Community Health Center

The decision to implement EPIC at LCHC was driven by a desire to streamline operations and improve patient care. EPIC provides more of what traditional paper records can’t offer. EPIC experts like Reid can utilize the software for data analytics purposes that inform healthcare decisions now and in the future.

“It allows the patient’s medical history to stay in one organized medical record,” she explains. “It also helps us spot trends, fluctuations in the patient’s health, and helps aid in prevention of disease. It helps us have easier integration of communication with patients’ care teams. Those people can include behavioral health, primary care, care coordinators, OBGYN, our nursing care (medical assistance and nurses); it can include pretty much everybody.

“It also helps us coordinate with other outside facilities,” she continues. “We have an interconnection with local facilities, but also anyone who has an EPIC network; we can communicate internally through EPIC.”

Patients can access their medical records and relevant test results using EPIC’s MyChart feature, which is the patient-facing side of the EHR software.

Since the adoption of EPIC, LCHC has seen a transformative change in managing patient medical charts, and Reid has been able to help educate other organizations to incorporate more efficient EPIC management.

LCHC Helps Healthcare Providers Make the Most of EPIC

Reid points out that LCHC is part of the OCHIN network, which is a large collaborative EHR collaborative that helps connect EPIC-using organizations. Through this collaboration, she’s been able to share her wealth of knowledge around the software and how LCHC is using it to transform how patients and providers connect.

“OCHIN owns the largest major structure of electronic medical records, and they host hundreds of health centers across this one platform,” she explains. “We’re actually a leader in a number of things across the collaborative, which is really something to be proud about. The presentation I did recently (at the annual OCHIN Learning Forum) was for social determinants of health.”

Reid goes on to share that LCHC’s efforts to address social determinants of health—as well as other things like pediatric care and health screenings, which the health center is also a leader in within OCHIN—are examples others in the EPIC collaborative follow to help shape their own programs.

LCHC Continues to Define Quality Healthcare Around Lynn and Beyond

The integration of EPIC at LCHC marks a significant milestone in the center’s history. It underscores the transformative effect of advanced technology in healthcare. This, along with Reid’s continued improvement of the software, proves that with the right tools and support, patient care can be greatly improved.

“My goal is to help make it faster, better, easier to use EPIC in a way that benefits the patient,” Reid says. “. . . and benefits the provider team, but really benefits the patient. It makes the entire patient experience a little bit easier.”