Epiphany Healthcare prides itself on improving workflow efficiency for healthcare organizations.  Epiphany provides these organizations one software solution that manages all their different diagnostic tests.  Cardio Server allows doctors to access their ECG data and other diagnostic test results from anywhere in the healthcare organization, office, or home including smart devices.  This solution streamlines the nurse-to-doctor communication and gets results to patients sooner.

Learn More About Cardio Server

Health Centers are among the healthcare organizations that Epiphany helps to provide the best workflow solutions for.  Health Centers are non-profits that work toward the mission of serving to improve the health of patients in the community in which they live.

What is National Health Center Week

National Health Center Week is the time that is designated annually to recognize and bring awareness to America's Health Centers and the mission that drives them.  They provide necessary healthcare in the communities that need them most.  Their doors are open to virtually everyone.  They not only provide primary care to millions of patients but try to find solutions for the main health concerns within their community.

 Why Observe National Health Center Week

The people that work for Health Centers are on the front lines with bleeding hearts of hope and health for all each day.  Community health workers wear many more hats than simply assisting with healthcare needs.  They have many roles and are heroes of healthcare to people that otherwise have barriers to healthcare.  America’s Health Centers and their heroes should be recognized for the great work that they do.

How to Observe National Health Center Week

National Health Center Week in 2018 is Sunday, August 12^th through Saturday, August 18^th.  Each day has its own focus to celebrate, such as Children’s Health Day and Healthcare for the Homeless Day.  The National Association of Community Health Centers and the Health Center Advocacy Network are inviting everyone to celebrate these Health Centers and the heroes that work for them by participating in one or more of these designated days.  According to the National Health Center Week website, these are the focuses for each day.

 

Sunday, 8/12: Legislative Appreciation Day

Monday, 8/13: Honoring Health Center Heroes

Tuesday, 8/14: Public Housing Health Centers Day

Wednesday 8/15: Healthcare for the Homeless Day

Thursday, 8/16: Agricultural Worker Health Day

Friday, 8/17: Patient Appreciation Day

Saturday, 8/18: Children’s Health Day

 

If the focus days do not hit home with you or you’d like to show your appreciation to your community’s Health Center heroes in another way this week, by all means please do so.  Shout out to your Health Center heroes this week and show them some love.  Epiphany wishes all of our Health Center organizations and their staff a happy National Health Center Week.

 

 

When asked why Epiphany’s Cardio Server appealed to him, Carl Navarro, Chief of Cardiopulmonary Services at the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS), responded, “They put all of the diagnostic test results from all of the modalities on one screen. It is a huge advantage to now have a dedicated cardiopulmonary database whereas before, the hospital was using three different systems. Now, ECG, PFT, and Holter studies are all in the same place on the same screen.” 

HSS in New York City went live with their Cardio Server system the week of June 18-21st. They are managing multi-modality diagnostic test results with Epiphany. Ranked #1 for Orthopedics by US News & World Report, the hospital’s mission is to lead the world as the most innovative source of medical care, the premier research institution, and the most trusted educator in the field of orthopedics, rheumatology, and their related disciplines.

Carl Navarro continued to share other great results about their new workflow after implementation. “Cardio Server is going to be a huge time saver for the staff. In the past, the staff had to credit all the ECGs that were read without an order,” he claimed. “Now, all of the studies have a matching order, making it easier for the staff to capture revenue that was formerly lost.” In addition to this labor/cost savings, Carl sang other praises about working with Epiphany. He chose Epiphany’s Cardio Server because he could tell that Epiphany makes customer satisfaction a big priority. In fact, feature requests and feedback from the customer go to Epiphany’s engineering team to be included in the next software release.

In summary, Carl Stated that Epiphany:

• Improved their order workflow by making sure every ECG is linked to an order, thus saving the technician valuable time and reducing the chances for clerical errors resulting in possible revenue loss.
• Provided a better workflow to assign studies to the correct MD so that we no longer have to worry about the wrong provider reading a study.
• Made all of the pertinent departments’ studies viewable in one system.
• Assigned a strong implementations team with excellent onsite training for an overall great implementation. Epiphany’s team members felt like an extension of our own team and the Epiphany project team really drove us to set up the right kind of workflows for our facility. 

Darlene Rowman, the lead Cardiopulmonary Tech at HSS, stated she has used two other widely known systems before Cardio Server. She said Epiphany’s Cardio Server is by far the most user-friendly system. “The software is very intuitive, easy to use, and it didn’t take long at all to train their staff.”

One of Epiphany’s Clinical Training Specialists, Tammy Smith, received wonderful feedback on Epiphany’s report tool. The technician she worked with mentioned that what could take her a week on their previous system would now only take a few minutes.

Now that the hospital staff has been using the system for a little over a month, our Customer Advocacy Specialist reached out to see how they were doing. She was told that the doctors are doing “phenomenally well” using the new system.

Epiphany wants to partner with you throughout all stages of your project. After your decision to adopt our system, we make sure it will work the right way for your organization and that it will maximize your efficiency. If you are wondering how our project implementations work, or how we handle post go-live support to maintain a continued partnership with you, sign up for a free consultation below.

 

Pictured above: NEW Cardio Server Mobile

Here’s What This Means for the Healthcare Industry

In the healthcare industry, a large selection of applications for mobile smart devices are now available and increased usage of these devices is transforming the practice of medicine. These tools help doctors and nurses perform important tasks and are used in many areas, such as health record maintenance, patient management and monitoring, decision-making, and communication with patients and colleagues.

Mobile devices and iOS apps benefit healthcare practitioners by giving them increased access to tools and helping them make better clinical decisions that improve patient outcomes. Here are some recent findings on the increasing use of mobile smart devices among medical practitioners and what this trend means for the future of healthcare.

Growing Use of Mobile Smart Devices in Healthcare

The use of mobile smart devices in the healthcare industry has grown dramatically in recent years. A 2016 Spok survey found that 63% of organizations have a plan for mobile devices, which is a 34% increase from 2012.

The survey also found that 78% of participants intend to use mobile devices for doctor-to-doctor communication and 74% said they would use mobile devices for nurse-to-doctor communication and test results management. In addition, 78% of hospitals surveyed indicated that they supported smartphone usage. The study also revealed that the top three systems being accessed by mobile devices are electronic medical records (EMR), directory lookup, and drug reference.

Benefits of Mobile Healthcare

There are many ways that mobile usage is transforming the healthcare industry. Here are some of the major benefits of mobile healthcare:

• Allows for remote viewing of test results
  Specialized iOS tools can be used to remotely view diagnostic tests. With these tools, medical practitioners can access test results from anywhere. This gives them the opportunity to read the tests sooner and get results to their patients faster. With these apps, doctors can also store studies and share them with their colleagues when necessary. In many cases, viewing test results on mobile devices is just as effective as viewing them at a standard workstation.
• Increased workflow efficiency
  The use of mobile applications increases workflow efficiency by automating much of the paperwork and reducing clerical errors in recording patient history. This automation decreases the risk of misplaced files and records. There are also apps that assist with data collection and entering patient information into an EMR. They provide secure access to patient information like medical history, test results, and scans. Doctors can easily access patient information on their devices from anywhere, which can save crucial time in a medical emergency.

• Improves communication between doctors and nurses
  Recent studies have shown the use of mobile devices improves communication between doctors and nurses in medical wards. The devices provide a variety of ways to communicate, such as texting, phone calls, and video conferences and helps doctors to respond to emails more quickly.  In another survey, over 80% of participants said they used mobile devices to communicate with their colleagues about patient care and found texting to be more efficient than phone calls or in-person meetings. Most importantly, using mobile devices to communicate also saves time in emergency situations, which can save lives.
• Assists communication between doctors and patients
  The growing use of mobile devices in healthcare allows for more real-time communication between doctors and patients inside and outside of a hospital or medical office. This makes it easier for patients to get in touch with their doctors if they have a question or concern and for doctors to check in with patients about their treatment. Patients who believe their doctors are truly invested in their care are more engaged and more engaged patients are more likely to follow their doctor’s care plan, take medications, and incorporate healthy practices.

• Allows for direct patient monitoring
  Mobile devices are increasingly being used to directly monitor patients with many chronic diseases. iOS devices can be used to take patient vitals, which allows data to be gathered electronically.  This can reduce the need for office visits and provides a way for doctors to monitor patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and heart disease from anywhere.

How Mobile Smart Devices Are Transforming Healthcare

One of the main advantages of mobile smart devices is they allow doctors to check in on their patients anytime. These devices increase efficiency in healthcare settings, which can save lives in emergencies. Epiphany’s Cardio Server Mobile is one iOS application that is transforming healthcare by allowing doctors to access ECG data remotely. This means that a patient who has an ECG in an ambulance can have the results sent directly to their cardiologist’s mobile device. By viewing the test results immediately on an iPhone, the doctor can make a diagnosis and have the Cath Lab prepare for the necessary procedure before the patient arrives at the hospital. This saves critical time in a cardiac emergency and dramatically increases a patient’s chance of survival.  

Cardio Server Mobile is optimized for iOS smart devices, which makes it extremely responsive and easy for a doctor to use. It is also a secure-data application and no patient data is left on the device after the doctor finishes with the test results.

Another cutting-edge iOS app is Kardia by AliveCor, which allows a patient to record a single-lead electrocardiogram using the KardiaMobile device with a smartphone or the KardiaBand with the Apple Watch. After taking the ECG, AliveCor’s algorithm’s will tell the patient if they are in atrial fibrillation. The patient can send the results directly to a cardiologist or a cloud-based platform and save the information in the patient’s records. This allows the cardiologist to quickly detect an arrhythmia, which can cause sudden cardiac death if untreated. AliveCor allows an arrhythmia patient to get treatment immediately, which can save lives.

Epiphany added over 100 devices to our compatibility list in 2017, including this device. When launched, this integration will make it possible for patients to transmit ECGs taken from the Kardia device and have them available in Cardio Server for a cardiologist to compare with previous studies.

The use of mobile smart devices and apps in medical settings continues to grow. An increasing number of doctors and medical professionals are making use of smartphone technology to view test results and to communicate more efficiently with colleagues and patients. A vast selection of apps for mobile smart devices are being developed and refined, which will continue to transform the future of healthcare.

 

 

From the desk of the President: Focus on cybersecurity 

The number of bad actors, the seriousness of damage, and the frequency of threats continues to increase in healthcare cybersecurity.  Healthcare and medical devices are under attack.  Managers must consider cybersecurity when maintaining and upgrading their medical devices.

Healthcare Ransomware, Data Breaches, Represent Top Industry Threats (from the 2017 HIMSS Cybersecurity Survey) by Elizabeth Snell, Thinkstock

75% of the 239 healthcare respondents said that their organization experienced a significant security incident in the past 12 months.  Nearly all of those entities (96%) were able to identify the threat actor.

37% of healthcare respondents that experienced a security incident in the past 12 months said it was due to an online scam.  20% of those surveyed attributed the attack to a negligent insider, with another 20% said a hacker caused the issue.

55% of those surveyed said their organization has a dedicated or defined amount of the budget for cybersecurity needs.

The 2017 HIMSS Cybersecurity Survey Final Report found:

•  Patient Safety is the #1 Concern
•  Data Breach is the #2 Concern
•  Spread of Malware is the #3 Concern

Epiphany Healthcare customers have often, in the past, waited to upgrade their systems until their operating system or browsers reached end of life.  This strategy may have been OK six or seven years’ ago.  It is not today.

Today, our software has evolved with a tremendous focus on the escalating cybersecurity threats and is much more secure than the software deployed six or seven years’ ago when the constant threat did not exist.

We contract with consultants to identify system vulnerabilities.  Those vulnerabilities that can be patched are released for the current version.  Vulnerabilities that cannot be patched are addressed in the next release.  This is an ongoing process to keep up with the evolving security threats.

In summary, current versions of Epiphany’s Cardio Server are far more secure than versions from six years’ ago.  Epiphany strongly recommends that every time you add a new module or feature, include a software upgrade in your purchase.  The software is included in your annual support agreement, you only pay for project management and technical engineering to implement the upgrade.  It is the prudent course to take in today’s world.

In 2004, Epiphany opened its doors with a goal to be vendor-friendly and integrate with as many different devices as possible to best support our customers’ complex needs. We are always looking to expand our compatibility list. 2017 marked a record-breaking year as we added over 100 new device integrations!

• Increased the Number of Supported Diagnostic Devices from 150 to 260
• Expanded the Number of Modality Types Supported from 15 to 23
• Developed New Relationships with Device Manufacturers, increasing them to over 80
• Refined Our Internal Process to Support New Device Integrations
  

What Does This Mean for You?

• Cardio Server is Flexible, Making it an Ideal Enterprise Solution
  • If your organization is an enterprise system with multiple hospitals, clinics, and different devices, Epiphany has the ability to customize your Cardio Server to work with them.
• Use Only One Application to Manage Multiple Diagnostic Devices
  • If you purchase new devices for your hospital, there is no need to purchase additional management software. New modalities are easily added to an existing Cardio Server system.

We Want to Integrate with Your Devices!

• Epiphany already integrates with 23 different modality types. However, if your hospital’s device(s) are not listed, let us know!
• Submit your integration inquiry to our Product Manager of New Ventures here and we will determine and notify you if your diagnostic device can be added to our growing list of compatible devices.
• Have questions about your devices? Chat live with our Product Specialist to get answers in real-time.

Discover Your Organization’s Potential with Cardio Server

Want to learn more about how Cardio Server will integrate with your devices? Let's talk! 

With over 850 hospital customers worldwide and a commitment to providing exceptional customer service, discover why Epiphany's Cardio Server is the fastest growing ECG management system on the market today.

 

Have you heard of National Doctor’s Day?  This national holiday took 58 years to become more than just a local holiday.  National Doctor’s Day is celebrated on March 30th in the United States and praises physicians for the work they do supporting their patients and their communities.  On this day, Epiphany would like to take a moment to thank each and every provider for their diligence to detail, timely diagnosis, and passion for the wellness of their patients who are our family.

The first Doctor’s Day can be traced back to a small town in Georgia called Winder.  On March 30, 1933 Eudora Brown Almond, the wife of a prominent Georgian doctor, wanted to create a day to recognize and honor doctors.  She mailed greeting cards to all of the doctors she knew and even placed flowers on the graves of deceased physicians. The flowers she placed on the graves of these doctors that are still used to celebrate National Doctor’s Day today are red carnations.

Even though this day was celebrated locally since 1933, it wasn’t a national holiday until Congress passed Proclamation 6253 in 1991.  March 30th was chosen because Dr. Crawford W. Long used an ether anesthetic for the first time on this day during surgery in 1842.

Epiphany would like thank the many providers who utilize Cardio Server on this special day.  We love hearing your feedback whether it be the ease of access from anywhere on any device including computers, tablets, or mobile devices or feedback regarding our features such as our advanced calipers.

We are happy to serve over 850 hospitals allowing providers to devote more time with their patients and less time on the clerical tasks.  Happy Doctor’s Day to each of you!

 

 

Managing a multiple-hospital, enterprise-wide IT infrastructure is challenging. Epiphany offers broad flexibility to hospitals in this situation. 

Hospital groups usually have legacy devices from multiple manufacturers and want to avoid the expense of replacing these products. Epiphany is compatible with 260 devices from over 80 manufacturers supporting 23 diagnostic modalities, so you can leverage your existing devices, workflow, and infrastructure.

Our customers have shared that in multiple-site systems, each hospital needs to be able to define its own workflow. Epiphany supports the ability to adjust Cardio Server to fit different workflow preferences for each site in a multiple-hospital implementation. Examples include:

1. Epiphany migrates data from your legacy management systems and uses that data to provide serial comparison reports on diagnostic test results from different manufacturer‘s devices.
2. HL7 messages, including order updates, preliminary results, image updates, final results, and billing messages, are transferred between multiple applications. For example, Cardio Server supports customized results for Epic, Cerner, Meditech, McKesson, and all other major EMR vendors.
3. It is common in multiple-site hospital systems for patients to have different patient IDs from different sites. Cardio Server identifies a patient's previous studies, even if they were performed with a different patient ID in another site, by using patient name and date of study and other unique identifiers of your choice.
4. Cardio Server can be configured to not require order linkage for outpatient and clinics studies, but to require orders for inpatient procedures. With our system, you can add not only your hospitals but your clinics and physician practices as well.
5. Some physicians confirm studies within the exercise stress application. Epiphany enables those stress studies coming from the hospital/clinic to be received as “confirmed” and pass onto the EMR while allowing physicians at the other sites to confirm using Cardio Server.
6. For university hospital systems, Epiphany has a workflow for cardiology fellows. The cardiology fellows receive a “usertype” unique to them that does not contain the ECG’s preliminary interpretation from the cardiograph. In this way, they are able to provide an unbiased interpretation before the reading MD confirms their work on the study. There is an additional option of a “training” version of Cardio Server, which strips interpretations from the ECGs, de-identifies patient information, and creates an archive of ECG training files for future use.
7. Multiple time zones are supported for enterprises that extend beyond a single time zone.

Epiphany values feedback from our customers. Listening and learning from our customers has allowed us to be active, adapt, and expand the functionality of our products to be flexible in supporting multiple-site enterprises.

 

An enterprise hospital using Cardio Server in Alabama contacted us to look for a way to improve their ECG billing workflow.

OPPORTUNITY FOR IMPROVEMENT

For ECG interpretations, there are two bill types: technical and professional. In this particular hospital’s case, the staff would manually change the study status in the EMR to generate the technical component of the bill.  

Of course, if any part of an organization’s workflow is manual, there is always a chance of inconsistency or clerical errors. At times, their manual process led to the hospital not billing the technical fee for performing an ECG. The hospital was losing revenue because, in their EMR, the trigger for dropping the technical charge required that the order status needed to change. In their previous workflow, this was a manual entry, it did not change automatically, and, therefore, the technical bill occasionally was not dropped. The hospital staff realized there was room for improvement and asked Epiphany if there was a way to automate this process. Epiphany’s answer was “absolutely.”

RESOLUTION

Epiphany now sends an order-status update message from Cardio Server automatically when the study is promoted to Unconfirmed. When Cardio Server sends the automatic update, the EMR changes the order status, which triggers the bill for the technical charge.

Patricia Brewer, an Epiphany Project Manager who worked with the hospital on the implementation, adds, “We are passionate about solving our customer’s problems here at Epiphany and this workflow fix is one of the many things we can do with Cardio Server’s flexibility to better the customer’s use and appreciation of our product.”

The resolution in Cardio Server for this hospital’s problem is not an uncommon request. This type of workflow improvement is what we at Epiphany work to achieve daily. When you calculate the time spent manually entering status change, in addition to lost revenue, automating the process with the help of Cardio Server and your EMR is substantial. If your EMR is able to accept an order-status update message, we can leverage that information to customize your Cardio Server configuration. Sign up for a complimentary workflow analysis to find out how Epiphany can improve clinical workflow for you.

What is it? Auto-reconciliation. You spend a lot of time manually reconciling studies to orders for tests performed before an order has been placed. We know that. It is a time-consuming, laborious process. We know that too.

With Epiphany’s Cardio Server, your studies automatically reconcile even if an order is sent after the test has been performed. This is a big deal as other ECG management systems can only offer a manual reconciliation process. A manual process involves many tedious steps to link a study to an order, these are extra steps that waste your valuable time.

Cardio Server can reconcile on patient ID, patient name, and date of study. If these fields do not suit your needs, different fields can be used for reconciliation—the settings are configurable based on your preference.

Emergency Department Benefits

Cardio Server enables a workflow where an emergency department physician makes a full interpretation of the study before an order is placed. When the order comes in and matches to the study, it is automatically confirmed. The reading physician does not have to take another look at the study. This is extremely important as most ECGs in the emergency department are initially completed before an order is placed. This process also helps with the hospital’s door-to-balloon time protocols because the ECGs are confirmed by a physician immediately upon receipt.

No add-on is required for this type of workflow; auto-reconciliation is something our application has been able to do for years. Auto-reconciliation is included with Cardio Server’s default configuration and the settings can be tailored to your needs. Cardio Server’s order reconciliation process greatly reduces manual workflow steps saving clinicians valuable time.

A Letter to Wally Pruitt, Implementations Director at Epiphany Healthcare from Mitch Ainsworth, PACS/Radiology Systems Administrator at Delta Regional Medical Center in Greenville, MS

Wally,

Now that we are a couple of weeks into our go-live, I feel like I can take a moment to catch my breath and put my thoughts on paper about our implementation experience. Epiphany was tasked with implementing Cardio Server in a very short time frame. We communicated our aggressive time-line requirements; the Epiphany team heard our needs and was able to implement Cardio Server to meet them. 

The team you assembled for this project was the best I have ever worked with. Bob Sturgill was instrumental in keeping the Epiphany team, as well as the DRMC team, on task to meet this deadline. Bob went above and beyond by scheduling time with just he and I to ensure certain milestones were met on time. Bob leaned on his contacts from Mortara to aid in integrating the stress and Holter systems with Cardio Server. Victor Villafaña worked tirelessly with our interface architect to ensure stable HL7 integration with Meditech. Victor also accommodated several changes just prior to go-live and a few optimizations after go-live. The trainer was exceptional as well. Tammy was well prepared to ensure we did not skip a beat while transitioning from Cerner Powerchart ECG to Cardio Server. During a very stressful time for our organization, Tammy kept both the ECG techs and physicians calm and focused while learning the new system.

The professionalism and work ethic of all involved from Epiphany should be commended. I never once felt that we were just another number on a sales sheet.

Your staff made the DRMC team feel as though we were part of a bigger team. The entire team was focused on effectively implementing a system that would aid in how we care for our patients as an organization. The Epiphany staff seemed as vested in this endeavor as we were. I have been involved in several other implementations that did not go so well. Other vendors we have worked with put their best people in sales. After the sale, the customer experience was terrible. From conversations with other colleagues, this seems to be the norm these days. Epiphany deserves to be applauded on this project. From sales to post-live support, it has been a wonderful experience. I feel sure there are a few people that I failed to mention but I appreciate their work on this project too. 

It is not often that the customer is treated as well as we were by Epiphany and you deserve to be praised for it. We are very satisfied with the quality of the system and how smoothly the system was implemented.

Thank you and your entire team at Epiphany for the hard work and dedication during this project.

Kudos to Epiphany!

Mitch Ainsworth RT(R)(CT)(ARRT) PACS/Radiology Systems Administrator Delta Regional Medical Center

About Delta Regional:

Founded in 1953 and based in Greenville, Mississippi, Delta Regional Medical Center is a 325-bed facility that is recognized as the leader in the delivery of quality care in the area. Delta Regional Medical Center’s purpose is to provide high quality medical services to the citizens and communities in the Tri-state Delta Region at the lowest practical cost and be a leader in providing needed support services to healthcare providers and patients to improve the health of the communities they serve.