By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
Mosaic Life Care has announced that Epic will be the new electronic medical record platform for the entire health system. Mosaic will fully transition to Epic by March 4.
Mosaic Life Care emergency medicine physician, Dr. Crystal Macaluso, who has helped oversee this transition, says the electric medical records, or EMRs for short, is what Mosaic caregivers use to store a patient's medical information and a lot of other data.
" The ability to place orders, to care for patients, to schedule patients to make sure they get the care they need at the right time," Dr. Macaluso said. "The other piece is to be able to have that historical context. When a patient comes into the emergency room, making sure I can review things quickly is really critical to be able to care quickly for that patient."
Dr. Macaluso says this has been a project about two years in the making. She says the main goal behind this switch to Epic is to streamline information for patients and caregivers into one centralized platform. It makes information more accessible for those using it, and will simplify important tasks, such as billing.
"We've really streamlined and really improved how we do our billing process," Macaluso said. "We have our vision of one patient, one record, one bill. Instead of having all of these third party billers, our goal is that you have one and that you can pay it right there in the portal."
More than 300 million people worldwide have an electronic record in Epic, which is becoming one of the most widely implemented EMR systems nationwide. Mayo Clinic, who Mosaic is partnered with, uses the Epic EMR system.
"We really wanted to be on the cutting edge and align with other organizations like Mayo, our clinical care partner," Macaluso said. "They're on Epic. So, really it was a decision that's quite the investment, but a worthy investment for our patients and communities."
Patients will have a new patient portal powered by Epic's MyChart, starting on March 4. All current Mosaic portal users will need to create a new account on March 4 to become MyChart users.
More detailed information on how to create that account will be announced soon, and communicated with patients via text message and email.
However, starting February 17, online scheduling will no longer be available on Mosaic's current portal. Secure online messaging will also be unavailable. "Hold My Spot" and "Virtual House Calls" with Urgent Care will also be unavailable.
Dr. Macaluso says they ask for their patients to be patient during this time of transition.
"Really just being understanding as we go through a time of transition," she said. "Change is not easy and certainly as we transition, we're all going through this together and we're all one team. As we change out of one system and into another, it takes a transition period."
Patients are encouraged to call their care teams for scheduling and prescriptions. Mosaic will also provide read-only access to the old portal for at least six months after go-live with Epic. Full records can always be requested through Mosaic's Health Management Information Management departments.
Thousands of Mosaic caregivers have been trained on how to use the new Epic system over the last 14 months to prepare for this change.
"We did a 14-month month implementation which gave us a lot of time to build and configure it right, and we had plenty of time to test it and train on it."
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