There’s no shortage of medical centers that are switching to Epic software. These institutions have evaluated their alternatives and found that Epic provides a more robust, scalable solution for their health care information service needs than decades-old technology or even contemporary options. Find out more about Epic and its benefits in this blog post.

What is Epic?

Epic is a company that produces software for mid-sized and large health care organizations. Epic works directly with its clients, which include academic facilities, hospitals, pediatric institutions, and multi-hospital organizations to provide quality health care software. Epic solutions include access to clinical data in addition to performing medical-related financial functions.

In High Demand: Epic Consulting Jobs

There's a big demand for Epic consultants in the healthcare IT industry. Driving the demand are two things: the growing use of Epic Systems’ software at healthcare organizations, and the difficulty in getting Epic certified, says Caleb Potter, Principal Healthcare IT Recruiter, Greythorn.

There are two types of Epic consultants. One is a certified Epic consultant, the other is a credentialed Epic consultant. It should be noted that credentialed Epic consultants get paid about $20 more per hour.

The two Epic jobs with the highest demand are an ICD-10 consultant and an Epic Resolute consultant. To a lesser extent, Epic Cadence consultants, who handle the scheduling aspects of the application, are also in demand.

• An ICD-10 consultant works to ensure facilities comply with the new billing codes set recently released. The code set allows more than 14,400 different codes and allows practitioners to track many new diagnoses. The ICD-10 consultant works to update systems to allow for this increased level of tracking, coding and billing.
• An Epic Resolute consultant will work with facilities to install, document, and support internal systems and electronic medical records. Typically projects in this area include installing and testing training environments, developing policies, procedures and business operations, training internal staff on systems, and providing system support throughout the entire project life cycle.

Why is Epic Gaining Momentum?

1. Epic is Effective at Marketing to Doctors

Epic not only sells software, but the company has earned the respect and recommendation of health care professionals. This might be a surprise to some because the product is a single-configuration application. That’s actually the advantage, though, because Epic’s project methodology enforces adherence to certain standards. Without Epic, IT senior management at health care organizations have reported problems motivating clinicians to follow certain guidelines. But because of how the software is used, Epic  makes it easier to ensure consistency across the organization.

2. Epic Reduces Demand Management

There is always a better way to build the proverbial mousetrap. Frequently, clinicians ask IT management for certain innovations, features, new software, and even bug fixes. None of these requests are perceived as a problem because medical systems are designed to be scalable and adaptable to new technologies and updates. However, the time and resources required to meet these requests is frequently dwarfed by their volume. With Epic, it’s easier for IT management to regulate demand because management can simply inform people that software updates are dependent upon Epic’s release schedule. 

3. Epic Makes it Easier to Comply with Federal Law

The Meaningful Use standard is defined by the federal government to ensure IT compliance in maintaining medical health records, and it’s part of the Healthcare Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) and health care organizations that don’t comply with it as of 2015 could be penalized. The good news is that companies that adopt Epic will find that it’s a safe beat for the Meaningful Use standard.

4. Epic Has Many Satisfied Customers

No one has been fired for adopting Epic. In fact, moving to Epic seems to be a prevailing trend. Just as it was de rigueur for IT managers to adopt IBM solutions a long time ago, it seems to be that today the “right” thing to do, for healthcare IT managers, is to look at Epic first. It should be noted here that Epic is not “state-of-the-art” technology. It’s built on a 1990’s era client/server technology model. However, this limitation is offset by the fact that Epic is viewed as a means to attract and retain qualified health care professionals.

5. Epic Offers Full Integration for Comprehensive Patient Care

The industry is moving away from a “best of breed” model to integration. Although Epic certainly has its share of competitors (such as Meditech and Cerner), senior managers at health care organizations are seeking solutions that promote continuous wellness as opposed to just treating incidental illnesses. To that end, an integrated suite of IT applications is preferable to niche-specific, yet isolated, solutions.

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