What is Epic and what is EpicCare Link?
Epic is Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital’s new patient‐centered electronic health record. It encompasses the complete patient registration, scheduling, clinical and billing information for Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM) and BJC HealthCare hospitals, including Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital (BJWCH).
EpicCare Link is the web‐based portal that providers in the community and their office staff will use to access information stored in the BJWCH electronic health record. It provides read‐only access to Epic.
When will Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital go live on Epic?
BJWCH will go live on June 2, 2018.
Is there a fee for using EpicCare Link?
BJC HealthCare and BJWCH are providing EpicCare Link at no cost to providers. It is a web-based service that requires no installation on your servers or computers.
How does Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital verify the referring relationship between me and my patient?
At each patient visit, our staff will ask patients if they have a primary or referring physician they would like to have receive communications regarding their visit. If the patient lists a doctor that is an established EpicCare Link physician, he or she will receive medical information associated with that visit. If the patient does not list a doctor’s name, no established relationship has been made which means no information can be shared.
Am I able to see the entire medical record for my patient?
You are only able to view the medical records related to patients you have an existing relationship with within BJC/WUSM. This information is available for 90 days.
For example, you will be able to see:
- clinic notes
- procedure reports
- discharge summaries
- surgery reports
- labs
- radiology and pathology reports
What are the benefits of using EpicCare Link?
It provides 24-hour remote access to view medical records including procedure notes, surgery reports, clinic notes, medications and lab results.
- You can download and print patient records related to your referral and/or import patient records into your electronic medical record.
- It reduces paperwork.
- It gives you immediate and up-to-date information.
- All reports are in one centralized location.
- A dashboard of new patients can be seen at a glance.
- It give you the ability to send messages.
- It can be customized to what you want to see about your patients.
Can my office staff get their own EpicCare Link account?
Yes. With an account they will be able to access patient reports for individual physicians or members of the practice group.
What computer equipment does EpicCare Link require?
Both PCs and Macs support EpicCare Link. The user’s system requirements are minimal: PC users must have Internet Explorer 9, 10, or 11, Firefox 24 or later, or Chrome. Mac users must have Firefox 24 or later, Chrome, or Safari.
EpicCare Link can also be accessed by Apple iPads running iOS 8 using the Safari browser and Android tablets using the Google Chrome browser. The native Android browser and other third-party browsers are not supported. The Google Chrome browser on iOS is also not supported.
Users might need to enable Java to view graphs and scanned images. Additionally, third-party image viewers might install Java applets and other ActiveX components on the client workstation. In this case, users need appropriate privileges on their workstations to install such components.
I still have questions. Where can I get answers?
Please complete the form below and the physician outreach coordinator at Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital can assist you.