University Health System is transitioning to an Epic electronic health records system, scrapping its current Allscripts and GE systems along the way.
The San Antonio health system is putting $170 million toward the systemwide EHR, which includes costs associated with the Epic software, personnel training and retiring outdated software systems. University Health System reported $1.2 billion in operating revenue in its fiscal 2017, its most recent year reported, according to Modern Healthcare Metrics.
University Health System said the breadth of Epic's existing client base played a central role in its decision, particularly as the academic health system's primary partner, the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, has used Epic for several years, according to a University Health System spokesperson.
"We are an academic health system and currently more than 90% of medical students and residents train on Epic," she added.
The majority of other public health systems in Texas are also live on an Epic EHR, she said. That may make it easier for clinical staff at University Health System to exchange patient data with nearby facilities when needed.
Epic is known for having tight interoperability among providers using its EHR. Its interoperability service, Care Everywhere, enables providers to exchange medical records with one another.
"The value of same-EMR interoperability has been discounted, but in Epic's case it has been a factor in large portions of the country adopting Epic," according to a 2018 KLAS report.
University Health System, which is currently implementing the Epic system, plans to be fully live on the EHR in May 2020.
