VCU Health
CTG was engaged by VCU Health, a top U.S. healthcare system encompassing an academic medical center, several community hospitals, and more than 800 physicians, for an enterprise-wide Epic electronic health record deployment.
“CTG was an important partner during our Epic go-live...CTG was able to pivot quickly to address changing training, readiness, and go-live needs.” - Sharon Gibbs, Senior Director of EHR Operations at VCU Health
Challenge
VCU Health, a top U.S. healthcare system encompassing an academic medical center, several community hospitals, and more than 800 physicians, planned an enterprise-wide Epic electronic health record deployment to improve patient communications and care decisions by creating a fully connected network that supports patient-centered care. To ensure success, they needed solutions for legacy application support, critical go-live readiness, end-user training, workflow optimization, and end-user application support. As COVID-19 positivity rates climbed, a plan was needed to safely train and provide At-the-Elbow (ATE) support to more than 18,000 end users. Our experience, Epic talent, and solutions made CTG the right fit for VCU Health.
Solution
As VCU Health prepared its organization for go-live, CTG provided critical legacy application support so internal resources could focus on implementation. CTG consultants also assessed support levels to determine the number of Epic-skilled resources necessary to support successful deployment.
As the project progressed, CTG provided Epic Training, Readiness, and Activation Solutions, including strategy collaboration, planning, and execution; training; virtual and onsite support; and, inpatient and ambulatory technical readiness. This ensured adequate go-live training, staffing, and technical preparation. To combat COVID-19 challenges, VCU Health adopted hybrid end-user training. Users assembled offsite for virtual training, where over 50 CTG support staff managed the logistics to ensure seamless user experiences. Over 140 Epic-Certified or Credentialed Trainers provided super-user and end-user training, including curriculum development, training content updates, Epic Specialists Training Specialists (STS) Training Program support, User Setting Lab content development, and system personalization training for providers. Epic End-User Training Services (Epic U) was also leveraged to provide virtual training to 9,000 employees, reducing the need for Principal and Credential Trainers.
As a part of final technical readiness support, CTG consultants identified, extracted, and loaded ambulatory and inpatient data into the new system. Finally, VCU Health elected to have CTG’s in-person ATE support during go-live to ensure system adoption and user confidence.
Between December 2021 and March 2022, VCU Health successfully went live on Epic across six hospitals and hundreds of ambulatory centers in Virginia. More than 1,200 CTG activation team members provided ATE support, allowing health system staff to use the new EHR without affecting patient care. CTG continues to support VCU Health in creating an enhanced digital experience for staff and patients with ongoing MyChart and Epic Level 1.5 support, advanced training, clinical workflow optimization, revenue cycle optimization, and more.