For two days last month, more than 2,000 people throughout the Partners system took part in the Partners eCare (PeC) Enterprise Premiere, an up-close look at how the new Epic-based electronic health record system will work.

BWH and BWFH will be the first hospitals in the system to fully implement Partners eCare, with a go-live date scheduled for May 30. During the next five years, the enterprise-wide health information system will integrate all clinical, administrative and revenue systems across Partners HealthCare.

BWHers who attended the viewing share their thoughts on the premiere and how PeC at BWH will change or improve the way they work.

If you weren’t able to attend, check out this video of the premiere: partnersecare.partners.org/premiere.

Amy Miller, MD, PhD
Chief medical information officer, Inpatient Clinical Services

How will Partners eCare at BWH change the way you and your team work?

PeC is going to change most aspects of how we care for patients at BWH. It will enable us to share information that has previously existed in silos, allow us to better engage our patients in their own care and help us to better assess and improve the care that we provide through enhanced data accessibility. It also will help us make the care across our various sites and the patient experience as they move across those sites more seamless.

After viewing the Partners eCare premiere, what are your thoughts about BWH’s build of Epic?

I think that PeC has been both thoughtful and innovative in the Epic build for Partners, and the resulting product looks great. The response of people at the premiere was very positive —with good reason. It looks like we will have a very good system when we go-live, and we know that it will only continue to improve over time.

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

The premiere gave us a great first look at the PeC build, but there’s so much more to what Epic offers and what PeC has built than could be shown in such a short period of time.  An army of people has been working full tilt for over a year to create this system – kudos to them for building a great system, and for putting together a great premiere. 

Evan Blaney, MD
Clinical staff, Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine

After viewing the Partners eCare premiere, what are your thoughts about BWH’s build of Epic?

I saw not only the PeC premiere, but also part of the process that led there, having attended several workgroup and committee meetings that contributed to the design. I think the final build reflects a lot of hard work and compromise across the various institutions and Epic. We will surely have some growing pains on implementation, as the many divergent workflows and needs across Partners had to be streamlined to accommodate one build. However, I’m entirely confident BWH will adapt quickly and in almost no time we’ll find ourselves working more efficiently and with a more comprehensive and accessible medical record.

If someone was unable to attend the premiere, what would you want to tell them about Partners eCare?

The interaction with Epic is very different from most programs we currently use and certainly different from paper. Currently, clinicians often write free text and copy/paste clinical data, but Epic mostly relies on a selection-driven interface for data entry and then generates a note based on the information entered.

Anne Bane, MSN, RN
Nurse director, Clinical Systems Innovations

After viewing the Partners eCare premiere, what are your thoughts about BWH’s build of Epic?

The demo I saw at the premiere highlighted a very smooth process to follow a patient from one episode of care to the next. The build has tried to make it very intuitive to the clinicians to know what information is needed and when. The admission and discharge navigators were a great example of this. A lot of work has been done to support our clinicians’ workflows and ensure we get the right information to care for our patients. I love the fact that certain data elements remain from encounter to encounter and within an admission as well. This eliminates the need to ask the patient the same questions every time a new clinician meets them.  We can now validate the data with the patient instead of starting from scratch.  This will make our patients feel like they are known to us.

If someone was unable to attend the premiere, what would you want to tell them about Partners eCare?

The patient record will be available to all clinicians at all times with the most up-to-date information about their patients. There will be one order-entry system so clinicians will be able to see all patient orders, no matter what department they are in. All departments will be documenting on the same MAR for an inpatient visit. With Epic, it will be much easier to find the medications administered and much safer for patients. There are great new ways to document a patient plan of care that all disciplines can view.

Vincent Vacca, MSN, RN, CCRN
Nurse educator, Neuroscience ICU

How will Partners eCare at BWH change the way you and your team work?

“Interdisciplinary” will be more than just a concept, it will be reality with PeC. Interdisciplinary is the only effective approach to identifying issues and providing care to our complex patients and their families. In other words, interdisciplinary care is our mission, and PeC will help us achieve it.

The patient’s electronic chart will be accessible in its entirety for all to view during rounds, all current or ongoing patient/family care issues will be identified and plans will be developed that are known to all providers for application and review.

There will be alerts for new lab results, nursing diagnosis language for the plan of care with evidence-based interventions and best practice advisories, meaningful use objectives, security of protected health information, discharge readiness, event log, patient education and navigators.

There will be new computer screens, keyboards and Workstation on Wheels (WOWs) to help us. With all of these features, our focus will be on the patient and family, supported by technology in a direct manner that we currently do not have with our pen on paper and disparate unlinked computer based/electronic systems.

If someone was unable to attend the premiere, what would you want to tell them about Partners eCare?

For direct caregivers, it’s important to understand the work that went into developing this product for them on behalf of our patients and families. Direct caregivers from all practice environments had effective representation so that the build of PeC captures the care, both general and specific, that we provide to our patients and families. This PeC product is customized to meet our needs for documenting all aspects of the care we plan and provide to our patients and families, and it’s also designed to be provider-friendly at the same time.

David Preiss, MD, PhD
Clinical staff, Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine

How will Partners eCare at BWH change the way you and your team work?

Partners eCare will be a very different experience for nearly every care provider at Brigham. As an anesthesiologist, Partners eCare has provided an opportunity for a more personalized, streamlined ordering and patient care strategy. Among the significant improvements will be a completely computerized preoperative evaluation process, eliminating the ambiguity of handwriting and a clearer order entry system. 

After viewing the Partners eCare premiere, what are your thoughts about BWH’s build of Epic?

There has clearly been a lot of effort into designing a system that works for Brigham. Although there is bound to be discomfort initially, and hiccups will be inevitable, the software is indeed impressive and will serve as an excellent platform for the next generation of patient care.

If someone was unable to attend the premiere, what would you want to tell them about Partners eCare?

I’d want them to know than nearly all details of the transition have been considered. I am impressed with the extent to which all the varying teams of the hospital have worked together to learn how one another functions. Partners eCare has spent months exploring all the aspects of the software that might pertain to YOU, but input is still needed. If there is something you wish to know or contribute, I think it would be prudent to be in touch with the particular team working with your department.