The Epic Project continues to hit one milestone after another. In just eight days during January and February, an astounding 374 Collaborative Design Sessions were attended by nearly 1,500 caregivers from across UMass Memorial Health Care. These sessions provided them an opportunity to review the Epic foundation system and make more than 2,500 decisions that are driving the configuration of this new system.

While the Epic Project Team began to build the system in late February, the technical teams worked diligently to ensure we had the appropriate type and number of devices (e.g., computers, printers, scanners). Technical and project team members have been meeting with department/clinic managers across the organization to ensure the optimal placement of those devices to support our new workflows. A number of technical infrastructure improvement projects (e.g., Windows 7 upgrade) also are in process in preparation for our transition to Epic.

The next project milestone is the Workflow Adoption Sessions. The first round took place April 25-27 with additional sessions scheduled for June and July. Workflow Adoption Sessions serve as validation checkpoints for those who attended the design sessions and made system and workflow decisions. Over the coming months, the Epic Project Team will build the system and then providers and staff will validate that build via the Workflow Adoption Sessions.

I am in awe of the enormous amount of work accomplished in such a short amount of time, but not surprised given the commitment of our caregivers – not only to the Epic implementation, but to our patients. I am convinced that this endeavor will be transformative for UMass Memorial Health Care. There is still a lot of work to do, but I am confident that we are well on our way to success – thanks to all of you.

Be sure to visit Epic Central to learn more about the implementation.

By now, I hope you have all heard the story of the UMass Memorial nurse and case manager who stepped forward to help save a fellow passenger’s life while flying from Chicago to Boston.

photo courtesy of The Boston Globe

Jane Palermo works on the University Campus on 2 Lakeside ICU and with neurology patients and medical surgical patients on 6 East. Her efforts made the news locally (Fox 25, Telegram & Gazette, Worcester Magazine, Boston Globe, WHDH Channel 7 Masslive.com), and she has been named “Nurse of the Week” by dailynurse.com. Congratulations Jane!

I also want to thank all of our UMass Memorial caregivers who supported the Donate Life campaign by having their photos taken to increase organ donation awareness. I am proud to see that so many of you have chosen to become registered donors. It is said that one registered donor can potentially save the life of eight individuals in need of organ transplantation.

I am a registered donor. If you’re interested you can become one today! It takes less than two minutes to register online and give the gift of life to someone in need. Well done Donate Life team!

Thanks for all of your great ideas and for taking great care of our patients and one another,

Eric