Valley Children’s Healthcare Completes Epic Go-Live 100% Virtually

Valley Children’s Healthcare in Madera, Calif., completed an electronic health record (EHR) system go-live with its vendor, Epic, providing support 100 percent virtually. Officials from Optimum Healthcare IT, the consulting firm involved in the project, say that starting and finishing an EHR go-live 100 percent virtually is an “industry first.”

According to officials, Valley Children’s Healthcare is the only comprehensive pediatric specialty network between Los Angeles and San Francisco—a region covering 45,000 square miles and 1.4 million children,  meaning that effectively integrating all their care locations from seven different EHR platforms onto a single Epic platform has been a core priority.

However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Valley Children’s approached Optimum Healthcare IT about the potential of the project moving forward virtually. Optimum presented a plan that was new to the industry that satisfied the health system’s request, officials noted. Working in partnership with Valley Children’s, “the pivot to a virtual go-live was seamless. To support this project, Optimum provided executive oversight, more than 20 analysts/application managers, activation program managers and leads, as well as 130+ virtual ATE resources covering all applications of Epic,” they added.

The massive shift from the in-person to virtual go-live began with remote one-on-one Activation Readiness activities three-weeks prior, Optimum leaders explained. The project then moved into further phases as if the Optimum team were on-site, they contended. “The same level of oversight and escalation paths were maintained via virtual support rooms, allowing the team to accomplish 80 percent first-call resolution.”  

Additionally, to ensure the providers were ready for go-live, Optimum conducted webinars and one-on-one sessions. Due to COVID-19, a large number of telehealth visits, including video, which is not usually a high need, were supported.

“I have been involved in many go-lives over the years, but this one ran smoothly as any that I have seen, said Kevin Shimamoto, vice president and CIO at Valley Children’s Healthcare. The remote training and go-live model used allowed us to stay focused on the COVID-19 pandemic while Optimum ensured our go-live ran uninterrupted.”