University Hospitals Authority

PROJECT PURPOSE

This project addresses UHA, OUHSC, OU Tulsa and OU Health?s (OUH) collaborative effort in transmitting and sharing electronic health records (EHR) among providers and patients across the state to drive better health outcomes and provide a better overall patient experience. This transformation modernizes and brings efficiency to our disjointed statewide system. COVID-19 highlighted the need for health systems state-wide to be better connected. Most large Oklahoma health systems have already converted to modern EHR systems that contain portals for protected transmission of health data. UHAT, OU and OUH have committed more than $200 million to this project. In planning for this conversion, OUH assessed the underlying IT infrastructure such as the networking components originally installed by OUHSC. Some components are now more than 30 years old and will not support Epic. One-time funds will be used to assist in the modernization of this network infrastructure. Updating these components will not only allow OUH to complete the privatization of the OU Physician clinics moving more than 2,200 state employees to the private sector but will also improve OUH?s ability to communicate with patients, physicians, state agencies such as OHCA and health systems state-wide to allow for more specialty care to be provided in a patient?s home community.

EVIDENCE

The Epic EHR is used by 19 of 20 Best Hospitals (per US News and World Report) and 20 of 20 top Medical Schools for Research. A Top 10 state demands a top 10 academic health system. CMS requires that hospitals utilize EHR technology that has been certified by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. This transformational project will comply with those requirements. Epic requires a modernized, always-on-demand technology infrastructure. This project was designed by a team of architects/engineers with over 200 years of IT experience in the academic health industry.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

All OUH patients, internal and external providers and collaborative entities like OHCA, ODMHSAS, DHS, DOC, municipalities and others are affected by our outdated network and EHR system. Patients should not have to leave the state or often their hometown for cutting edge healthcare like advanced cancer treatment, pediatric services or specialty consultations. Patients and providers living in rural areas are disproportionately disadvantaged by OUH?s current technology limitations. This transformation will enhance telehealth capabilities for specialized services that only OUH provides in Oklahoma and collaborative opportunities with providers in rural communities. It will allow for provider-to-provider consultations through sharing of electronic records. A modern patient portal will enhance digital health capabilities to all areas of Oklahoma and beyond. It will allow OUH to share data with other community resources (transportation, shelters, food banks, behavioral health, etc.).

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

UHA would collect and report data to the legislature and Governor?s Office of Project Performance Metrics. Metrics would include network component delivery and installation milestones as established by management and project go live milestones such as testing results and performance of end user acceptance processes. Metrics on a go forward basis would include standard IT measurements such as system down time, number of error tickets generated/resolved and user experience survey results. As the largest provider of Medicaid services in Oklahoma, we would report data to our collaborative partner OHCA regarding health outcomes and utilization to address health disparities for beneficiaries.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

Able to continue operation without additional funding from the State of Oklahoma