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FAQs
What is CareConnect?
CareConnect is UCLA's electronic health record (EHR) program, which will
integrate inpatient and outpatient clinical records with appointments, registration,
billing, and other business-related functions throughout UCLA Health System and
David Geffen School of Medicine. CareConnect is based on software provided by
Epic Systems Corp.
Who will use CareConnect?
An estimated 15,000 faculty and staff will use CareConnect. Among those who will
use CareConnect are:
Physicians
Pharmacists
Nurses
Advanced-practice nurses
Other clinicians
Trainees (fellows, residents, interns)
Students
Staff members working with scheduling, registration, billing, patient placement
(ADT), and hospital information management (HIM)
Where will CareConnect be implemented?
CareConnect will usher in an enterprise-wide transformation of the way we deliver
care at:
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital
Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA
Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital
150-plus patient care clinics throughout Southern California
When will we start using CareConnect?
Implementation throughout the health system will take place in stages. The current
timeline is:
July 2012: Scheduling, registration, billing, ADT (admission, discharge, and
transfer), HIM (health information management) across the enterprise (except
UCLA Santa Monica Bay Physicians and oncology); lab order communication at
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Mattel
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FAQs
Children's Hospital UCLA, and Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center and
Orthopaedic Hospital; and documentation and physician order entry at a group of
ambulatory clinics
July 2012 - September 2013: Documentation and physician order entry for the
remaining ambulatory clinics and care delivery sites on a rolling basis
October 2012: Documentation and physician order entry for Ronald Reagan
UCLA Medical Center, Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital, and Mattel Children's
Hospital UCLA; and nuclear medicine, cardiology, and radiology across the
enterprise
May 2013: Documentation and physician order entry at Santa Monica UCLA
Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital
Late 2013: Medical oncology practice, both inpatient and outpatient
Why are we implementing CareConnect?
CareConnect will give our providers and patients an integrated set of systems that
allow easy access to information to improve the overall patient-care process,
enhance patient safety, support evidence-driven care, facilitate health sciences
education, and support the multitude of robust clinical research programs across
UCLA and its affiliated partners. Specific benefits include:
An integrated system that allows data to move with patients across all areas
including clinics, emergency departments, and hospitals
Computerized physician order entry (CPOE) that allows providers to manage and
communicate orders
Clinical documentation tools that enhance workflow for all caregivers and make
information accessible to those who need it, when they need it
Electronic medication administration record (eMAR) and closed-loop medication
administration that ensures patient safety and reduces errors
A single system for patient registration, appointment scheduling, billing, and other
patient business-related functions
A patient portal that empowers patients to be involved in managing their health
information and the care they receive from us
How will I learn to use CareConnect?
All faculty and staff working in areas implementing CareConnect will be required to
use it, and everyone will receive classroom training. Additional online training can
be accessed from the CareConnect and Epic Systems Corp. websites. A
comprehensive training strategy and plan are being developed.
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FAQs
How will CareConnect affect my job?
CareConnect will transform the way we deliver care and do business at UCLA
Health System and David Geffen School of Medicine. We recognize that
CareConnect represents major change for how you'll do you jobs going forward. We
also know that change is difficult. That's why we're working hard to build in
significant support for faculty and staff members before, during, and after the
implementation. In the end, we expect most faculty and staff members will find that
using CareConnect will result in more consistently safe and high-quality care and
that it enhances their ability to do their jobs by providing streamlined systems for
many business and clinical processes, easier access to needed clinical data,
coordinated care, and more.
Who's defining how CareConnect will function?
CareConnect's Executive Oversight Board composed of leaders from UCLA Health
System and David Geffen School of Medicine is responsible for making decisions
about how Care Connect will be implemented. The EOB developed 11 principles to
guide development and implementation of UCLA's electronic health record. Chief
among these is the principle that the patient's best interests are paramount, and
that CareConnect will be based on Epic's Model System. The workflows and clinical
content in that model system are being evaluated by hundreds of faculty and staff
and modified to make sure they meet our clinical and business needs and
effectively serve our patients.
By the time CareConnect is implemented, thousands of decisions will have been
made -- most by the faculty and staff members who will use the tools every day to
do their jobs. We've enlisted the help of hundreds of faculty and staff across all of
the health system and medical school's facilities, care settings, and departments.
Learn more about how decisions are being made.
After CareConnect goes live, we will continue to optimize the system based on
lessons learned through our everyday use of it.
How will our patients be affected?
Patients will find similar experiences wherever they're seen within UCLA Health
System once CareConnect is implemented. Among the many conveniences
CareConnect will offer patients across the enterprise are simplified processes for:
Scheduling appointments
Contacting providers
Receiving test results
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Obtaining referrals
Being admitted and discharged from our hospitals
Acquiring educational information
Receiving bills
What happens if the system goes down?
The system is designed for full redundancy at all levels of the architecture. If one
component fails, the workload will be picked up by the redundant component. Data
are replicated between data centers to provide disaster-recovery capability.
Additionally, selected data will be available in the hospitals in case of a network
outage. Additionally, the MITS 2012 program is designed to improve IT operations
processes and procedures so they align with best practices for high-availability
systems. We will work together to develop plans for unexpected downtime and
incorporate this into CareConnect training.
More FAQs
Visit CareConnect’s website for answers to dozens more frequently asked
questions.
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