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DPH IT outlines Epic EHR rollout plan, governance and major risks

San Francisco Health Commission · February 6, 2018
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

DPH Chief Information Officer Bill Kim reported the department has executed an Epic contract, formed governance bodies and set mid-2019 as a go-live target while identifying staffing and vendor integration as primary risks to schedule and budget.

The Department of Public Health gave commissioners a detailed update on its electronic health record (EHR) implementation and overall IT strategy, reporting that Epic contracting is complete, governance and program offices are established, and the project is tracking to a mid-2019 go-live date with continued attention to staffing and third-party integrations.

Bill Kim, DPH chief information officer, reviewed a multi-year IT strategic roadmap and said the Epic contract has been executed and Epic staff are on-site with a project leadership team standing up. Kim said the initial total cost of ownership estimate over 10 years was about $377 million and that current tracking is below that figure because a significant contingency has been used to cover unknowns; he cautioned, however, that third-party contracts and value-added technologies remain a major planning area.

Kim outlined the project phases: groundwork and direction setting, adoption (build and intensive testing), go-live training and post-live optimization. He said the department has consolidated many planned third-party contracts (originally about 150 down to under 70) and created an EHR executive oversight committee and program steering committee to monitor scope, schedule and budget. The EHR program management office began work in early January to track vendors, activities and finances.

Kim identified two notable risks: (1) the resource and time commitment required from DPH subject-matter experts during direction-setting sessions and (2) timely hiring of implementation staff and the ability of internal candidates to pass Epic assessments. He asked for sustained executive support and reported average IT customer-satisfaction scores improving as the department readies for EHR adoption.

Commissioners thanked staff for the update, requested quarterly reporting on the project and noted the EHR's ongoing implications for the department's finances and operations. Kim said the project team will continue to refine timelines and cost assumptions and will return with regular updates.