CommonSpirit Health

Our experts implemented Epic Beaker in parallel with the construction and opening of a new hospital and lab.

Challenges

When CHI Franciscan of Tacoma, Washington (now part of CommonSpirit Health) hired Healthcare IT Leaders to lead its Epic Beaker implementation, the hospital system was transitioning its regional lab to a new centralized facility that was still under construction.

With a tight implementation timeline dictated by the opening date of the new building, the Beaker project would need to be conducted in parallel with the construction and setup of the new lab (3x larger than the original!).

The COVID-19 pandemic created additional complexity, requiring our staff to work virtually throughout the project.

Solution

Healthcare IT Leaders recruited an experienced project team made up of a PM (our Epic Practice Leader), Team Lead, and certified Epic Beaker analysts.

Because the hospital was installing new lab equipment and instrumentation, new test codes and interfaces were required. Utilizing Epic best practices, the team completed the build, including test codes, workflows, order routing, integration to middleware, and interfaces to lab analyzers, in approximately four months.

The transition from build to production was challenged by the physical readiness of the building and network connectivity. Our PM, working with the hospital’s construction team, oversaw the installation and activation of a temporary network to ensure that integrated testing could take place as scheduled and keep the project on track.

After switching from the temporary network to the new building’s permanent network, the lab was ready for Go Live. With virtual support from Healthcare IT Leaders, the new Beaker system—and the lab — went live without a hitch.

“The absence of drama (during Go Live) was such a relief. The switchover was seamless, allowing us to function without any major issues. I would call it a roaring success,” said Tracy Bradfield, Division Director of Laboratory Services and Transfusion-Free Medicine and Surgery.

Results

• With Beaker implementation expertise from Healthcare IT Leaders, CHI Franciscan successfully launched its new regional lab on time and on budget.
• The transition from the old lab to the new lab was ‘a roaring success,’ accomplished with no disruption of service to patients, and only a minimal number of post-Go Live issues, which were quickly resolved.
• The new centralized lab utilizes Epic Beaker to successfully process hundreds of thousands of results a month from a menu of 200+ tests for an 8-hospital regional network.