Epic Experts Share What Works

Published in Dome - October 2016

Danny Lee had an idea. 

It was 2013, and Epic had just gone live for Johns Hopkins Community Physicians locations, including Odenton, where Lee is an internist and the office medical director. He wanted the electronic medical record system to better help clinicians meet Accountable Care Organization standards. ACOs, like the Johns Hopkins Medicine Alliance for Patients, provide coordinated care across specialties to Medicare patients.

So Lee, who leads Epic development for community physicians, created a dashboard that prompts providers to schedule and track preventive care supporting ACO standards, including screenings for breast cancer, depression and fall risk.

As a result, ACO metrics improved across ambulatory sites. Breast cancer screenings for appropriate patients rose from 59 percent to 64 percent, for example. Depression screenings went from 47 percent to 74 percent, and fall risk screening jumped from 24 percent of eligible patients to 70 percent. 

A few months ago, Lee took his success story to the Expert Group Meeting, an annual event hosted by the Epic Systems Corporation at its headquarters in Verona, Wisconsin.

The weeklong conference attracts Epic designers and users from across the country, who share ideas and give talks about their experiences with Epic. Lee’s presentation, “Epic Tools to Meet Every ACO Metric,” was among 26 given by Johns Hopkins Medicine experts. Here are three others: 

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