Dr. Sharon M. Wesley

Connecting patient records for safer, more efficient care

When one of Dr. Sharon Wesley’s patients had care at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, tracking the details previously required a series of phone calls, release forms, faxes, and more to ensure she had the complete picture of their health issues. Today, Wesley has a direct window into the care and history, without all the back-and-forth, because her office and Community Hospital use the same electronic medical record system.

“We’re all on one chart, essentially — inpatient or outpatient, we can easily communicate,” says Wesley, a family practice doctor in Monterey since 2002. “It’s better for doctors, but more importantly, it’s better for our patients.”

Community Hospital began using the system, called Epic, in August 2018 and has been working closely with local doctors who are interested in adopting the provider version, Epic Connect. The hospital subsidizes most of the cost, considering it an investment in patient safety and efficiency.

“It supports better, safer care and reduces costs by avoiding duplication,” says Rose Wheelus, provider support services manager at Community Hospital. “And it gives patients the same kind of access to their own records. If I’m seeing a primary care doctor, an endocrinologist, and a cardiologist, and they are all using Epic, then everyone knows what everyone else is doing.”

Wheelus recently had her own positive experience with the system. A family member received care at both Community Hospital and Stanford Medical Center. Both use Epic so the doctors involved could easily share records to inform and support the care they provided.

The secure patient record system is now used by more than 70 percent of the hospitals in the United States and a growing number of medical practices. All the doctors with Montage Medical Group, part of Montage Health, are on the Epic system. In addition, Wheelus and her colleagues at Community Hospital have worked to bring 20 local providers on board, and five more offices are in the pipeline.

Wesley was in the first-adopter group in December 2018, after she served as a subject matter expert on a Community Hospital committee that evaluated new record systems.

“I loved Epic from the moment I saw it because I could see the potential,” she says. “It is used in university medical systems and in places all over the world. Patients are mobile; to have a chart that traveled with them made sense to me.”

“I had a patient come to me from the Bay Area, for example, and she didn’t have all the information I needed about her history, the medications she has taken, what doctors had seen her,” Wesley says. “I was able to go into Stanford’s Care Everywhere from Epic and find all the information I needed in order to make sure I was managing her healthcare correctly.”

Patients have access through a portal called MyChart. “My patients are very happy,” Wesley says.

“They can see their lab and radiology results. They can send me messages. They can look at their appointments.”

Dr. Richard Ravalin, an orthopedic surgeon in Monterey, began using EpicConnect in March 2019 and has found benefits from both care and business perspectives.

“It’s been phenomenal,” Ravalin says. “It’s very easy to document notes from visits and procedures, to capture encounters, and then process the encounters for billing. I can literally see 40 patients and formulate my notes within 24 hours of seeing them, charges go to a payer (insurance company), and sometimes within 24–48 hours, I’m getting reimbursement…and all the information is linked into the patient’s chart without a lot of data entry work.”

By law, Community Hospital can’t subsidize billing-related software or hardware for physicians. But the expense has been worth it to Ravalin, who no longer uses a billing company.

“I was told initially that it’s not recommended to do your billing yourself, but it turns out it has so many capabilities to deliver ease of billing, and I’m still uncovering how much potential there is,” he says.

“There were some growing pains for 3–4 months, but it’s been a lifesaver.”

Wesley is happy to talk to offices considering moving to Epic, and sharing her experiences.

“I think it would be wonderful if we were all on one chart in our community,” she says. “I think it would be really important for patient safety and efficient care of patients.”

To learn more about EpicConnect, doctors can call (831) 658-3989.

Patients of Community Hospital or physicians who use Epic can sign up for MyChart at montagehealth.org/mychart

DOCTORS USING EPICCONNECT

These doctors in Monterey County are using EpicConnect as their electronic health record, making it easier for them to see a patient’s whole health picture and for patients to see and share their records.

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