A delegation of SHC physicians and delegates recently visited current installations of the Epic Information System, the comprehensive electronic medical record package that Stanford is implementing starting next February.

In his Sept. 25 Dean’s Newsletter, Dean Philip Pizzo noted that the sites he and colleagues viewed Sept. 21 and 22 - Cleveland Clinic and Loyola Medical Center near Chicago - “were chosen because they have similarities to what will be installed at Stanford Hospital & Clinics.”

When fully operational by October 2009, the Epic Information System will provide an electronic medical record for the inpatient, outpatient and business services at SHC, including North Campus in Redwood City, and other clinical sites. The system will also be integrated with the institution’s business processes. The installation is being led by Kevin Tabb, chief quality and medical information officer and Carolyn Byerly, CIO at SHC.

“Because faculty leadership will be so important to the success of Epic at Stanford, these site visits predominately included clinical chairs and faculty leaders,” the dean said. Site visitors included physicians Greg Albers (neurology), George Fisher (medical oncology), Rob Jackler (otolaryngology), Quynh-Thu Le (radiation oncology), Henry Lowe (IRT and general medicine), Bill Maloney (orthopaedic surgery), Ron Pearl (anesthesia), Geoff Rubin (radiology), Chief of Staff Larry Shuer (neurosurgery), Richard Sibley (pathology), Paul Wang (cardiology), and Mark Welton (Surgery). Hospital leaders included Martha Marsh, president and CEO, in addition to Tabb, Byerly and Jerry Shefren, SHC’s vice president, ambulatory care.

“The visits were extremely informative and it was exciting to see what an Epic EMR at Stanford might look like. At the same time it was also sobering to recognize the many issues that will need to be addressed to make this project successful,” the dean said.

Demonstrations for physicians of the Epic electronic medical record system are being scheduled regularly at SHC.

For more information on the Epic installation, see the latest IT Newsletter accompanying the October printed Medical Staff Update newsletter.