Augusta, Ga. (January 22, 2024) – Piedmont completed a successful Epic Electronic Medical Record (EMR) integration of the hospitals in its Augusta clinical hub, which includes three hospitals comprising more than 800 beds and eight Prompt Care locations. The integration will provide patients in this service area, which includes 25 counties across Georgia and South Carolina, seamless integration of care with Piedmont’s other 20 hospitals and more than 1,600 locations across Georgia.
Piedmont Augusta, Piedmont McDuffie and Piedmont Summerville Campus joined the Piedmont system on March 1, 2022. Piedmont has now converted them to its version of Epic. Previously, these hospitals, formerly University Health Care System, operated on a different version of Epic.
Epic stores patients’ health information from across the Piedmont system in one electronic medical chart, so each patient has only one comprehensive medical record in Epic, no matter which Piedmont hospital, doctor’s office or clinic he or she visits. All organizations using Epic interoperate, which means that they can easily exchange patient data for improved patient care. Providers will have the ability to coordinate care with clinicians outside of Piedmont who serve their patients and their families, closing care gaps and reducing duplication.
During the transition, Piedmont was committed to ensure that Augusta area patients continued to have access to their medical records and made the data and account transition to the Piedmont MyChart a hassle-free experience. Piedmont Augusta patients previously had access to MyChart, the system’s portal for personalized and secure online access to their health information that lets patients communicate with providers, schedule appointments and perform e-check in prior to arrival, and refill prescriptions. MyChart allows patients to receive care through online and on-the-go appointment booking and virtual on-demand video visits. With the benefit of the integration, Augusta area patients can now be connected via MyChart to providers throughout the Piedmont system.
This is the second EMR integration Piedmont has completed since June 2022. The other included Piedmont Cartersville, Piedmont Macon, Piedmont Macon North, Piedmont Eastside and Piedmont Eastside South Campus.
“We are pleased to have completed another successful integration that will help provide for seamless care of our patients throughout the state,” said Leigh Hamby, M.D., Piedmont’s chief medical officer, “whether they might be visiting a relative elsewhere in Georgia and in need of urgent care or those requiring a life-saving organ transplant or novel heart procedure at our founding hospital.”
The launch at these hospitals came following nearly nine months of preparation, training more than 1,700 clinicians and other hospital staff for the updated system. To help with the launch, volunteers from other Piedmont hospitals who use Epic as part of their daily jobs provided at-the-elbow support the week leading up to the launch, on launch day and more than a week afterward.
“It is a tribute to the talent and experience of our Information Systems and clinical teams that we have completed a software integration of this size in a smooth and efficient fashion,” said Geoff Brown, Piedmont’s chief information officer. “We thank everyone for their patience, as we worked to ensure our patients continue to receive the highest quality of care during our transition.”
Said Barry Jenkins, M.D., Piedmont Augusta’s chief medical officer:
“Using Epic means that providers have access to a patient’s full story, whether they were seen here at our hospitals, another Piedmont location, or even at other providers in Georgia or across the world, regardless of which system they use. Epic allows our clinical staff to coordinate care with clinicians outside of Piedmont to close care gaps and leverage automation for efficiencies such as appointment scheduling and e-prescription processes.”