MedBridge and Epic Direct Integration: Your Biggest Questions Answered
The MedBridge Home Exercise Program (HEP) offers tremendous benefits for clinicians, organizations, and patients, from a higher level of patient engagement and adherence to time savings and improved outcomes. And by integrating our home exercise program platform with your EMR, you can get even more out of it. That’s why MedBridge recently launched Epic Direct Integration, which allows your organization to bring patient information into a central location and simplify workflows for clinicians.
In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the most important benefits of integration and answer the most common questions we hear about it.
Benefits of Epic Integration
Directly integrating MedBridge with Epic allows clinicians to quickly create and assign programs and easily document patient information in the EMR without interrupting their workflow. Organizations can collect and record accurate patient information to create more holistic patient profiles, improving care coordination and the patient experience.
Let’s take a closer look at how integration can benefit your clinicians, your patients, and your organization.
Streamline Clinician Workflows
Epic Direct Integration creates a seamless user experience for clinicians, allowing them to easily access MedBridge from the point of care, saving time and improving documentation abilities. In fact, clinicians whose organizations have integrated MedBridge with their EMR save up to 5 minutes per patient while increasing patient engagement. That equals a time savings of 250 hours per year and potential additional revenue of $30,000 per clinician per year for patient visits.1 In addition, clinicians whose organizations have integrated MedBridge with their EMR assign 60 percent more home exercise programs, increasing the likelihood of better outcomes.2, 3, 4
Here’s how it works: From a patient’s chart within Epic, a provider can launch MedBridge using Single Sign-On to bypass entering additional credentials, and MedBridge will direct your clinicians to the patient profile where they can customize their HEP. After the HEP is saved, it can be automatically recorded back to the EMR as a text program note.
Automate Patient Record Creation
If a patient doesn’t yet have a MedBridge record, the system automatically creates one based on existing activity in the EMR as soon as the clinician opens the MedBridge tab from Epic. This feature makes it easy for clinicians to initiate new episodes of care with just a few clicks.
Reduce Errors in Patient Care
By eliminating manual entry and duplication of records, clinicians can greatly reduce the risk of documentation errors that might negatively impact patient care.
Enhance the Patient Experience
Integrating MedBridge HEP with Epic helps enhance patient satisfaction and outcomes by increasing patient-clinician facetime and improving care coordination. Time spent with patients is essential for achieving the best possible outcomes, and this integration gives clinicians just that—more time with patients, which can help boost patient rapport and improve the patient experience. Integration also allows clinicians to improve care quality and coordination by more easily making real-time data-driven recommendations for patient exercises and education.
Common Questions About Epic Direct Integration
What does implementation look like?
The MedBridge Implementation Team is dedicated to facilitating a smooth transition into the integrated experience. From Kickoff to Go-Live, you will have an assigned Integration Specialist and Integration Engineer who will manage the project, consult on the solution that best fits your organizational needs and goals, and provide product training to empower your teams as they weave the integrated MedBridge Patient Engagement Solution into their everyday workflows.
The process consists of nine main steps:
- Pre-Kickoff Call (optional)
- Kickoff Call
- Technical Setup
- Integration Configuration
- System Validation
- Go-Live Prep
- Admin & Clinician Training
- Integration Go-Live
- Wrap-Up
How long will implementation take?
Total project duration can vary significantly from client to client, but project time typically averages between 8 to 12 weeks. However, keep in mind that this timeline can vary depending on a health system’s individual nuances—including preferences, policies, and how they work with their EMR vendor.
How many resources will implementation require?
Based on historical implementations, a typical Epic integration requires approximately 10 to 15 hours of work from a client’s designated technical resources who are already familiar with the client’s EMR system and capabilities.
Is this integration secure?
Security is of utmost importance to us. Our EPIC Direct Integration is HITRUST and HIPAA-certified, and leverages industry-standard SMART and FIHR technologies for connecting databases and storing healthcare data. If you have additional questions, please reach out to us to talk with an integration engineer.
How should my team prepare for integration?
We know transitioning to a new workflow can be disruptive, and we are committed to partnering with your team on a seamless and successful rollout. The successful launch of a new tool or service is to a large extent dependent on how it is received by users. Therefore, sharing rollout details and background information with various stakeholders is a key part of the go-live planning. We also recommend identifying your clinical workflow by encouraging clinicians who might use the system differently to reach a consensus. For more detailed guidance on preparing for integration, please reach out to your MedBridge Sales Representative to coordinate a call with a dedicated Integration Engineer.
How MedBridge Supports You
The MedBridge Implementation Team is dedicated to facilitating a smooth transition into the integrated experience. From Kickoff to Go-Live, you will have an assigned Integration Specialist and Integration Engineer who will manage the project, consult on the solution that best fits your organizational needs and goals, and provide product training to empower your teams as they weave MedBridge HEP into their everyday workflows.
Learn more about the MedBridge EMR Integration Solution.
References
- Overall time savings: Assuming 50 5-day weeks per year and 12 patient visits per day.
- Cost savings on new evaluations: Assuming 45 minutes per new evaluation, 333 new patient evaluations per year, and a reimbursement of $100/visit.
- Cost savings on patient visits: Assuming an average of 30 minutes per visit and 500 visits per year.
- Based on exercise programs created per license with access to MedBridge Home Exercise Program.
