Michigan Medicine Upgrades Epic EHR to Meet Regulatory Requirements

The newest upgrade to Michigan Medicine’s Epic EHR will add new health IT features to advance care delivery and efficiently meet regulatory requirements.

The new features in MiChart will go live on Sunday, October 23.

Some key changes and enhancements include:

• In-basket redesign with an updated look to improve EHR usability
• A new behavioral health module to support the unique clinical workflows of behavioral health users and meet regulatory requirements within MiChart
• A new genomics module that can create actionable Genomic and Germline indicators while also offering reporting data.
• Changes to secure chat availability statuses.
• Updated status board and new procedural narrator in OR and procedural areas
• Book It scheduling will be available, along with the current Make Appointment scheduling

Michigan Medicine officials noted that other care organizations that recently upgraded their Epic EHR have experienced system performance issues at go-live. However, they pointed out that the MiChart team is working closely with the EHR vendor to assess potential impacts at Michigan Medicine.  

The implementation team installed code fixes to mitigate risks at go-live, and some features will be deferred based on Epic’s recommendations.

Michigan Medicine will follow standard communication and change management plans for MiChart upgrades leading up to and during the activation period to help resolve potential issues with the upgrade. 

System downtime for the upgrade will be from 2 am to 5 am on Sunday, October 23. The MiChart teams will not be able to make changes to the system until the activation is complete.

Training materials are available for all users to review on the MiChart Fall Upgrade project page. All clinicians and MiChart users are encouraged to review the content to ensure a seamless upgrade.