The Client
AltaMed Health Services has been a leading community health system in delivering quality care, specifically Medicaid, to the underserved communities of Southern California for more than 50 years, with over 400 providers serving 500,000+ people.
Overview
In August 2019, AltaMed Health Services migrated to Epic as its EHR system. Since then, AltaMed achieved Level 8 designation in Epic’s Gold Stars program – which grades health systems on how effectively the health organization uses Epic. Ray Lowe, Senior VP and CIO at AltaMed, had a strategic vision for AltaMed to show that providers, and specifically in the Medicaid market, can be excellent. To accomplish this, Ray knew his team had to better utilize the Epic application.
The Challenge
AltaMed Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Ray Lowe, determined AltaMed could improve their usage rate of available features from their Epic EHR. However, he didn’t want to turn features on without any real value for their clinical practice. The features would need to enhance quality care for a complex patient population. His in-house IT team would need a partner to assist in this endeavor.
The Solution
AltaMed turned to HCTec as their partner to enhance their Epic EHR capabilities. To achieve Ray’s goal, AltaMed and HCTec worked collaboratively on the following elements for success:
- HCTec provided Epic analysts to work with AltaMed’s in-house analystsand clinical informatics team.
- Uncovered additional tools in Epic to increase usage rate from patients.
- Identify and help modify areas where they were needed so that everyonecan take advantage of the beneifts, both on the provider and provider side.
RESULTS:
AltaMed earned Epic Gold Stars Level 9 designation, which only about 16% of all health systems using the Epic Systems application. Achieving Level 9 designation has pushed Ray Lowe and the AltaMed IT team to continue to advance their mission and digital innovation strategies, including going live with Epic Hyperdrive in October 2023.
