Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI)

Our skilled Epic Builders and Trainers partnered with CHI Oncologists and clinicians to successfully implement Epic Beacon across multiple facilities.

Challenges

For its Epic Beacon (oncology) implementation across five sites in the Pacific Northwest, Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) required certified Beacon analysts to build and validate several hundred chemotherapy protocols, based on CHI oncology order sets, many of which only existed on paper or in spreadsheets.

Training and knowledge transfer were critical to the program’s success, so CHI also needed support from an experienced Instructional Designer to develop educational materials and manage its training environment (MST).

Solution

Our VP of Epic Consulting worked with our Epic recruiters to identify a large team of certified and highly experienced Beacon and Ambulatory builders. Our lead builder—a trained physician—was chosen for her 10+ years of Epic experience and her in-depth understanding of Beacon protocol build and oncology clinical workflows. Additional certified resources required for the implementation included an Epic Cadence analyst for the scheduling module and an Epic Security analyst to build role-based Security templates.

Our Instructional Designer worked on the project from the start, developing the training plan for all five CHI sites, creating educational materials for the Beacon application within CHI standard training policies, and building and maintaining the training environment.

Moving Protocols from Paper to Epic

The documentation and transfer of over 300 oncology order sets from paper to validated clinical workflows in Beacon was the foundation of the project. Our builders worked closely with CHI oncology physicians, nurses and other staff to build and validate these complex chemotherapy protocols—screen by screen.

To ensure successful knowledge transfer, Healthcare IT Leaders brought in credentialed trainers to deliver onsite and classroom training to over 150 end users. Our trainers also provided at-the-elbow (ATE) support at activation to answer user questions and troubleshoot concerns.

Results

Working closely with CHI project management, Healthcare IT Leaders provided all of the qualified resources required for the client to effectively deliver a complex Beacon implementation across multiple sites.

With a clear directive to complete the project on time and on budget, we did just that—primarily utilizing remote build resources to significantly reduce costs associated with travel and lodging.

Our curriculum design, training materials, and Epic-credentialed trainers made the transition to Beacon a positive experience for the oncology teams at CHI. Post Go-Live, our implementation and training teams received high marks from CHI project leadership and end users.