Case studies

Health care goes electronic

Novant Health client spotlight

Novant Health’s 24,400 employees and physician partners are driven by a mission to deliver a remarkable patient experience in every dimension, every time. In support of this mission, Novant Health decided to implement an electronic health record (EHR) system that would create enterprise-wide access to patient records and streamline care. However, before it could embark on what would later be coined the “Dimensions” EHR program, Novant Health would need to evaluate its IT capability, enforce operational standardization, and establish organizational readiness.​

“We are fully focused on our patients’ experiences and everything we do is defined from that perspective. So, the technology we implement must enable care providers to do what they’re called to do; to fulfill a commitment to our patients. From my perspective, that’s the greatest value of this Dimensions (Epic) EHR program.”

– Dr. Stephen Wallenhaupt, co-executive sponsor of the Dimensions project at Novant Health​

​​One step back for a giant leap forward

Novant Health knew the EHR would be the enabler of its vision, but after engaging with Deloitte in the initial vendor selection evaluation, it realized it wasn’t immediately ready to implement the technology.

“We hit the pause button, looked internally, and did the hard work of restructuring our IT department to build capability and stability,” says Jacque Daniels, executive vice president and chief administrative officer at Novant Health. “Then we looked at the clinical side, to see how patient records were being managed among our 15 different medical centers.”

After several years of working to define and standardize what was to become the Novant Health way of providing health care, the organization reengaged Deloitte to expedite its Dimensions EHR program with Epic software as the foundation.

Impacts from transformation:

  • Improved patient experience
  • Increased Computerized Provider Order Management (CPOM) utilization and medication barcoding compliance
  • Rapid return to average daily revenue (ADR) baseline and ability to generate clean claims

​“Deloitte brought in different levels of individuals to interface with our organization and help model what we needed to build. They taught us how to fish. They didn’t do it for us; they did it with us, which gave us the competence and understanding we needed to cast the line on our own.”

– Jacque Daniels, executive vice president and chief administrative officer at Novant Health

​​Creating an improved health care experience for patients

Since the initial launch of the Epic EHR solution in October 2013, deployment has increased in velocity and complexity. Today, Dimensions is live at the majority of the acute hospitals and ambulatory surgery sites with a plan to complete the full roll-out within the next two years. Novant Health has increased both computerized provider order management (CPOM) utilization and medication barcoding compliance, and expeditiously returned to 100 percent of its average daily revenue baseline. Most importantly, however, now there’s an improved, repeatable, predictable experience for Novant Health’s patients, no matter where they engage the system. It’s this consistent framework that has enabled Novant Health to achieve its original mission of delivering a remarkable patient experience in every dimension, every time. 

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