CHRISTUS Trinity Mother Frances Sulphur Springs Launches Industry-Leading Electronic Health Record

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Beginning on October 1, 2017, CHRISTUS Trinity Mother Frances Sulphur Springs will drastically improve communication and access to information for both patients and providers as a fully operational user of the Epic Electronic Health Record (EHR).

With Epic, clinicians and patients will benefit from a safe, seamless and integrated set of electronic applications with convenient access to information. The system is designed to facilitate and improve the overall patient care experience at every CHRISTUS Trinity Mother Frances Sulphur Springs location.

“CHRISTUS Trinity Mother Frances Health System is a leader in the electronic integration that is revolutionizing many of the ways care is provided throughout the country, and bringing this game-changing technology to the people of Sulphur Springs and the surrounding area is a top priority for us,” said Paul Harvey, MHA, President and Chief Executive Officer, CHRISTUS Mother Frances Hospital – Sulphur Springs. “Implementation of the enterprise-wide EHR is one of the largest and most impactful projects ever undertaken in Sulphur Springs, and it will have an incredible and positive impact on our patients here.”

Having Epic in place significantly improves the way health care providers communicate with one another, their patients and the public. Statistics and experience shows that it transforms the way health care systems provide care, resulting in improved patient care and employee workflow. It is an industry leader, regularly named to the top of EHR systems in surveys and winning dozens of national and international awards for quality. Epic users include 14 of the top 15 U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals in the country.

As of the January 2017, approximately 190 million patients across the globe have a record in Epic’s EHR system. Epic’s software is used in a variety of clinical settings, including community hospitals, retail clinics, rehabilitation centers, academic medical centers and independent practices, including the Cleveland Clinic, the Mayo Clinic, Kaiser Permanente and many more. Estimates indicate over 45-percent of patients in the U.S. have an Epic chart.

“The EHR will provide a comprehensive single-system approach for the people of Sulphur Springs, including everything from registration to clinical orders, medical records and billing, replacing many of the older systems,” said Becky Western, Director of Information Management Applications, CHRISTUS Trinity Mother Frances Health System.

The fundamental feature that the Epic EHR brings to the Sulphur Springs area is a secure, integrated and unified patient-centered database. Patients will benefit by having their clinical information available to the caregivers at every point of care across the system: inpatient, outpatient, ambulatory, community, and regional locations. In addition, physicians can affiliate with CHRISTUS Trinity Mother Frances Health System through the use of the EHR by adopting the Epic system in their practices.

Patients will be able to immediately benefit from the convenience and access to information by using MyChart, the electronic patient portal into Epic. By using the MyChart website or smartphone app, patients can quickly and easily perform a wide variety of actions 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week. Patients can view and access medical records, manage appointments, request prescription refills, exchange messages with their providers, view test results, pay bills and more.

“The Epic EHR has become the portal and repository for all of the clinical work done in our hospitals and clinics,” said Tom Hargrove, M.D., Chief Medical Information Officer, CHRISTUS Trinity Mother Frances Health System. “Our medical staff has embraced this challenge and has used it to propel the excellent care we provide to even higher levels.”

With the successful use of Epic across the system, both CHRISTUS Health and CHRISTUS Trinity Mother Frances Health System has been repeatedly named by the American Hospital Association as one of America’s Most Wired – an award given to health systems who are investing in analyzing their data to support new delivery models and effective decision-making while training clinicians on how to use analytics to improve quality, provide access and control costs.

“Technology like Epic is making it easier for patients and providers to interact, thus improving communication, patient safety and patient-provider relationships,” said Western. “New tools like Epic and MyChart are helping patients become more actively involved in their care and maintaining their health, and ‘Most Wired’ hospitals are using smart phones, telehealth and remote monitoring to create more ways for patients to access health care services and capture health information.

“At CHRISTUS Trinity Mother Frances Sulphur Springs, we’re committed to continually improving our systems and services, as increasing evidence shows that these technologies and associated process changes can improve the quality of care and outcomes for our communities, and support our mission of extending the healing ministry of Jesus Christ,” said Harvey. “In today’s changing health care environment, technology will play an ever-increasing role in supporting high-quality patient care practices. It is crucial that health care organizations establish highly interoperable systems to meet the diverse needs of the communities we serve.”

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