Healthcare System Achieves Epic Gold Stars Level 10 Designation

For the second time this year, New Jersey-based RWJBarnabas Health has achieved an Epic Gold Stars Level 10 in recognition of the healthcare system’s latest EHR implementation.

RWJBarnabas Health’s multimillion-dollar Epic Together EHR implementation project has been rolled out over several years using a staggered approach.

The Epic Together EHR implementation project scored a "Perfect 10" during Epic's Gold Star review of its Wave 2 implementation earlier this year and just recently scored another 10 for its Wave 3.

The Epic Stars Program provides an organization with a scorecard based on an organization’s effective EHR usability. It measures organizations in specific areas such as patient access, patient experience, clinical quality and safety, population health management, physician productivity, nursing, and clinical team productivity. The score is based on the overall adoption percentage of more than 700 Gold Stars items.

Gold Stars Level 10 is the highest level of recognition that can be reached, placing the health system in the top 0.3 percent of all Epic users, even higher than providers such as Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins, Cleveland Clinic, and Cedars-Sinai.

This newest Gold Star recognition follows the significant success of RWJBarnabas Health’s Epic EHR project. Amid the COVID-19 upheaval, the healthcare system predicted productivity would fall by 40 percent.

However, the health system defied its expectation and instead increased productivity by 43 percent through an operational “strategic pause,” it said.

This plan helped continue the Epic buildout while allowing necessary team members to work on the front lines, recover, and return, the press release stated. Team members prioritized other interest areas to ensure the project stayed alive throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Even with the challenges of COVID-19 stretching our resources to the limit, the Epic Together team achieved a Gold Stars 10 designation faster than any other healthcare group in the company's history," said Robert T. Adamson, PharmD, FASHP, executive vice president and chief information officer at RWJBarnabas Health and operational leader of the system’s Epic implementation. “I’m deeply proud of our team’s commitment and collaboration that made this moment possible.”

This is not the first Epic EHR recognition a health system received this year.

In September, Health Choice Network (HCN) achieved a Level 9 in Epic’s Gold Star Program for its effective EHR usability following its recent EHR implementation.

A Level 9 distinction places HCN in the top 12 percent of Epic users. This rating means HCN has adopted at least 85 percent of the Epic Gold Star features and is categorized as a cutting-edge organization and a leader in EHR use, the press release stated.

“We are only getting started,” Oscar Perez, chief applications and innovation officer of HCN, said in a public statement. “Achieving the highest Epic Gold Stars rating was an established goal set by leadership at HCN at the onset of our community health center' unique build in 2021. This recognition does not come easy or without a price. Many organizations work across multiple years just to achieve a lesser Epic Star rating.”