University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Epic EHR Implementation

Comprised of 40 academic, community and specialty hospitals, UPMC has become well known internationally for renowned centers of excellence in cancer, psychiatry, neurosurgery, transplantation, rehabilitation, geriatrics, and women's health. As the largest non-government employer in Pennsylvania, UPMC has 92,000 staff, 800 physician offices and outpatient sites, and 4,900 employed physicians. The competitive health system boasts top-ranked hospitals and service lines. U.S. News consistently ranks UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside among the nation's best hospitals in many specialties and ranks UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh on its "Honor Roll of America's Best Children's Hospitals."

The health system made a multi-year significant commitment to information technology transformation to integrate its Electronic Health Records (EHR) throughout its network via UPMC's accelerated ambulatory implementation strategy – a Community Connect type of implementation strategy to create a more unified and manageable health delivery system.

Part of this integration included the implementation of EpicCare Ambulatory to streamline care processes, improve community-wide health and strengthen the patient-provider relationship. In conjunction with the IT department at UPMC, Stoltenberg worked to develop a blueprint to optimize the productivity of UPMC's clinics before, during and after the implementation of EpicCare. Stoltenberg analysts assisted UPMC with implementation, maintenance and ongoing Community Connect rollout support. A key component of this rollout was the training of ambulatory staff, which included physicians, outpatient office staff, nurses and allied health personnel. This training included formal classroom training as well as training in variety of informal settings (elbow-to-elbow, by physician office, online training, etc.) for meaningful hands-on education.

Stoltenberg remained a vital partner throughout the Epic transition as the primary firm in UPMC's accelerated implementation ambulatory strategy. Enabling cross-continuum coordination, Stoltenberg helped UPMC achieve its goal to provide Epic EHR system utilization and billing services for recently acquired physician offices as quickly as mutually possible to both UPMC and the physician office organizations throughout the health system's expansion.