Contra Costa Health Replaces 75–100 Systems with Epic

In an interview at the 2016 CHIME Fall CIO Forum, Contra Costa Health Services CIO David Runt reflected on his organization’s shift from small, homegrown and niche systems to Epic’s unified patient record eight years ago. “Bringing in Epic proved to be tremendous, as we sunset somewhere around 75-100 systems,” said Runt. “We were able to reduce a lot of the ongoing licensing, maintenance, and support costs.”

CCHS is a safety net organization that serves a large portion of its county, including five jails. “Our philosophy is one patient, one record,” said Runt. “Whether that patient is seen in our hospital, our clinic, in our psych emergency room, in the jail, in public health—we know everything about [their medical history].”

Now that Contra Costa uses Epic for everything from clinical applications to reporting, they have much more freedom to use their data in creative ways. “It’s fantastic, the amount of data we have at our fingertips now,” said Runt. “It’s revolutionizing our capabilities.”

Read the full interview here.