Stair: What are you looking for?
Stu: I can’t find my pocket protector. Oh…oh. Hey everyone.
Stair: Welcome back to The Epic Guys. We’re here in the control room preparing for our Epic Journey countdown. It’s a massive undertaking. We have a lot to do for this episode.
We’re going to give you a behind‑the‑scenes look at our pre‑launch checklist, so you’ll know everything that’s coming as we get ready for go-live liftoff.
Stu: The Go-Live Readiness Assessment involves six major categories that are some of our top priorities before we launch. Our first readiness assessment will be 120 days prior to go-live, where we basically check to see if everything is green across the board. These checks are critical to a successful Epic launch, and we’ll need your help to get them completed.
Stair: Okay, the first item is a big one. The entire system has to be fully built and then tested. The build is the process of making about 45,000 decisions and putting them in place so that Epic is ready for action when we start taking care of patients. This has taken hundreds of analysts, providers, staff, and Epic experts over a year to complete, and we’re still not done. Then we have to test what we’ve built. We have to make sure that every order, medication, and action does what it’s supposed to do. And, of course, we have to make sure that system performance is top‑notch.
Stu: Number two on our checklist is super users. We have identified hundreds of people over the enterprise to get early training, so they can be ready to be mobilized. These can be nurses, staff, therapists, pharmacists – pretty much anyone who wants to help. Their primary role will be go-live support. This means that they’ll be on the ground in the hospitals and clinics, ready to help us through our first two weeks. Readiness means that we’ll have them identified and registered for that early training.
Stair: Number three on our list is also a big one: training. Imagine the organization it takes to prepare to train 40,000 people ahead of go-live. We will be closely watching registration over these 30‑day windows, with the ultimate goal of 100% of all our providers and staff registered. Remember, you can’t take care of patients in Epic without going through training.
Stu: And you can’t work in Epic without the right computers and devices. Number four on our checklist is hardware. It takes monitors, printers, laptops, switches, and countless other devices to make Epic work. And these have to be deployed and tested across all of our Epic locations. We are monitoring those efforts closely over the next 120 days, so that everyone can efficiently access Epic on day one of go-live. I can’t imagine the thousands of hours and the effort it takes for our IT folks to get this done.
Stair: Stu, communication is one of the most important readiness activities, and it’s on the list at number five. We’ve been communicating in all sorts of ways, kind of like The Epic Guys videos, but at 120 days, we’ll start making sure that our leaders provide regular updates at department and faculty meetings, huddles in the hospital and clinics, and through emails, visual communication, and word of mouth. You’ll see it everywhere. This can be one of the most challenging aspects of go-live readiness, but we have an amazing marketing team who has already done great work, and we’re excited about getting the word out.
Stu: Okay, number six on our checklist is go-live logistics. This is making sure we have staffing schedules and super‑user support officially scheduled, so that everyone is in the right place for their shifts at go-live. You can see that this is almost a full‑time job, given the hundreds of people who will be involved in helping us take care of patients during the first two weeks.
Stair: Getting our whole enterprise live on Epic seems just a little less complex than getting men to the moon and back. It takes an incredible amount of leadership, planning, and organization, and even then, I’m sure we can expect a little bit of turbulence along the way, but we’ll make it.
Stu: Yep. And as long as we work together with the ultimate goal of improved, efficient patient care, we’ll make it through liftoff and get to our destination. Oh, there’s my pocket protector.
