Outcomes of an Advanced Epic Personalization Course on Clinician Efficiency through Use of Electronic Medical Records: Retrospective Study
Background: Since Singapore’s first migration to Epic in 2022, we have been conducting an advanced Epic personalisation course twice a year for healthcare professionals with at least 3 months of experience using Epic. Electronic Medical Records education is an under-recognised pillar in reducing Health Information Technology-related stress and burnout. Objective: The course intent is to improve clinician efficiency through customisation and personalisation of Epic interfaces. Our hypothesis was that trained clinicians, compared to their colleagues, would demonstrate significant quantitative improvements in Epic utilisation after our course. Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis from July 2022 to January 2024, of 17 clinicians amongst 77 individuals who attended our course. Course recruitment was done through electronic digital mailers sent out on the local hospital announcement channels. Interested clinicians were able register for our course via the National University Of Singapore website. Our one day course involves physical lessons and interprofessional case-based discussions, emphasising a wide range of high-yielding Epic functionalities with practice exercises, such as drafting referral letter templates. Three months of pre-and-post course Epic usage statistics of the trained clinicians were retrieved based on aggregate data provided by Epic Singapore. Performance metrics included documentation length, time spent in Epic functionalities and usage of SmartPhrases, order sets and preference lists. Results: At 3 months post-course, documentation length decreased by 45.8% versus an increase of 22.2% among controls. Trained clinicians had a 2.47 fold increased usage of order sets from 16.2% to 40% and a 49.9% increase in orders from preference lists after the course from 35.1% to 52.6%. In total, trained clinicians had a 1.8 fold increased usage in orders from preference list or order sets after the course from 51.4% to 92.6%. The number of SmartPhrases created by trained clinicians was 5.64 times more than controls in addition to a 5.57 fold more utilisation of Quick Filters than controls. Moreover, time in Chart Review per day decreased by 29.3% among trained clinicians versus an increase of 14.6% among controls. Compared to controls, trained clinicians spent 36.7% less time in Epic system per day, 56.6% less time on Notes per day, and 57.5% less time on Orders per day. Conclusions: Overall, trained clinicians became more efficient in their use of Epic, such as reduced time spent in various functionalities of Epic. Increased employment of Smart Tools including SmartPhrases and quick filters was also observed amongst trained clinicians, which was effective in reducing total usage time. Our results thus demonstrated broad improvements across multiple physician efficiency metrics for participating clinicians of our advanced Epic personalisation course. This may contribute to improving mental health for healthcare professionals and enhanced productivity within healthcare systems.
