19 Mar MDI Solutions Interface Engine enables Epic Systems Go-Live
Group Health Centre (GHC) in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario went ‘live’ on Epic Systems and utilized the MD Link Integration Engine software from MDI Solutions to integrate internal and external systems.
GHC decided in 2013 to discontinue using its EHR physician software in favor of the Epic ambulatory system. The health centre’s goal was to install a physician-friendly system that improves performance and patient safety by providing an integrated EHR across the continuum of care. KLAS Enterprises has ranked EpicCare EHR the No. 1 system in its category for the past 14 years.
Wanting to maximize the effectiveness of the new Epic system, GHC determined that they would need a middleware platform to manage integrating with other software systems; including OLIS (the Ontario Laboratory Information System), the Meditech system installed at Sault Area Hospital and other government organizations. Following an extensive review of the healthcare integration vendor market, GHC selected MDI solutions based on their recent work interfacing systems with Epic (using MD Link) at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) and their proven track record of exceeding customer-driven integration objectives.
MDI assigned 2 Bridges (Epic HIS interface broker) certified interface analysts to manage all system interfacing requirements including: interface planning, design, development and deployment. Based on the MDI resources’ previous experience working at the application level with Epic Systems, they were tasked with developing test plans and took on the additional role of entering and validating data directly on the different Epic applications. The resources successfully developed and implemented 11 interfaces in GHC’s production environment in phase 1 of Go-Live and are currently working on additional interface deployments for phase 2. MDI is also responsible for monitoring and support of the interface environment, and will assign additional Epic Bridges certified resources as the site’s 24 x 7 support team.
As Ontario’s largest and longest established alternatively funded healthcare organization, Group Health Centre serves over 60,000 Sault Ste. Marie and Algoma District residents.
Group Health Centre is a progressive, multi-specialty, ambulatory care health organization and is one of Canada’s first consumer-sponsored health care facilities built with private funds donated by local union members. More information can be found at http://www.ghc.on.ca/.