Catholic Health Announces Major Technology Investment; Partners with Canisius College on Transformational Healthcare Initiative
Catholic Health is making the largest investment in its history, dedicating more than $100 million in state-of the- art technology that will connect our hospitals, home care, long-term care, clinician offices, health centers and ancillary services with patients throughout the area. This transformational investment marks a major milestone for our healing ministry, which dates back more than 165 years.
Over the next 18 months, Catholic Health will be transitioning to Epic, the most advanced Electronic Health Record (EHR) system available.
“We’re not satisfied being the quality leader in Western New York. We want to be the best-in-class nationally and that means giving our doctors, nurses, clinicians, and patients the most advanced tools available to improve care delivery and the overall health of our community,” said Mark A. Sullivan, President & CEO of Catholic Health. “This investment not only represents a significant leap forward in EHR technology to enhance our quality achievements, it will also provide our patients with the very best care experience, giving them a sense of ease when accessing or navigating healthcare across Catholic Health.”
An EHR replacement of this magnitude requires a significant financial investment; a dedicated implementation team of clinical, business, and information technology experts; and months of rigorous planning, building, and testing before it can be rolled out system-wide. Catholic Health will add about 40 new positions, which will join its existing IT team and technology specialists from Epic, to make up its EHR implementation team.
As Catholic Health continues to position itself among top-performing health systems in the country, Epic will give our system the ability to benchmark itself against the nation’s leading providers and access to a vast library of analytics and best practices that are setting new standards for quality outcomes, patient safety, and population health management across the U.S.
“Since our inception, Catholic Health has been at the forefront in bringing advanced technology to our community,” Sullivan said. “With Epic, we are making the most significant investment in the history of our health system to continue transforming care throughout Western New York and to deliver on our promise to provide the highest quality care, now and into the future.”
Partnering With Canisius College
To create a technology center to build and test our new EHR, Catholic Health is partnering with Canisius College to locate its 150-member EHR implementation team in the college’s Main Street Science Hall. Catholic Health will lease 25,000 square feet of space on the building’s third floor.
“When we looked at office space in the community to house our implementation team, the synergies between Catholic Health and Canisius College were many, especially the alignment of our Missions. The open floor plan, in an environment conducive to learning, is the perfect setting for a project of this kind. One of our goals is to create a talent pipeline between the college and our health system to give students real-world experience that they can put into practice within our health system."
- Mark A. Sullivan, Catholic Health President & CEO
“We are proud to host this important initiative on the Canisius College campus. We look forward to working with Catholic Health to create internships and mentoring opportunities for students who will be future leaders in IT, data analytics, finance, healthcare and other disciplines that interface with this technology, as well as innovative collaborations among students and professionals throughout our beautiful campus.”
- John J. Hurley, Canisius College President
Why Epic?
It is the most widely-used and comprehensive health record system in the U.S. with more than half of all Americans receiving care at a healthcare organization that uses Epic.
Epic is used by a majority of U.S. News & World Report’s top-ranked hospitals and medical schools, including Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins, UCLA Medical Center and Cleveland Clinic.
Epic users work collaboratively every day to improve patient care, innovate healthcare delivery and achieve financial health.
Epic protects and manages 64% of all patient records worldwide.
“I’ve had the pleasure of working with and getting to know the team at Catholic Health during this process. They are a very thoughtful, dedicated group who are well prepared for this new challenge. We are thrilled to be starting this relationship and look forward to working with them as they continue to provide high quality care to the communities of Western New York.”
- Ellen White Epic Vice President