How Epic Direct Integration Helps Improve Patient Care

Electronic health records (EHRs) play an essential role in efficient care delivery by improving patient management, enhancing coordination between care providers, streamlining workflows, and empowering patients. Of these systems, Epic is the top EHR vendor by market share, with 70 percent of all health network EHR implementations in 2022 and 2023.¹

Because so many Medbridge partners use Epic, we've made it even easier to leverage the benefits of our digital patient care solutions by launching our Epic Direct Integration, which allows organizations to bring Medbridge exercise program information into a central location and simplify workflows for clinicians. By integrating with Epic, Medbridge makes using patient care tools such as Home Exercise Program and Pathways more accessible and convenient with features such as seamless data exchange between Epic and Medbridge, single sign-on (SSO), and automated patient data synchronization.

In this article, let's take a closer look at the benefits of Epic integration for organizations and providers.

The Value of Epic Direct Integration for Healthcare Organizations

Enhanced patient care

Integrating Epic with Medbridge allows organizations to better coordinate and streamline care delivery with easier access to more accurate patient records and a comprehensive view of patient history and progress. 

Organizations can proactively identify trends, adjust treatment strategies, and support clinicians in delivering more personalized care using real-time insights into patient engagement and adherence. Embedding patient education and home exercises directly into Epic ensures that care plans are structured, accessible, and seamlessly integrated into existing workflows. High patient adherence has been shown to improve outcomes by up to 26 percent.²

Operational efficiency

With integration at the point of care, organizations can reduce administrative tasks and paperwork, streamline documentation processes, and enable faster, more informed decision-making. HEP integration users save up to five minutes per patient, which translates to approximately 250 hours per year—potentially generating up to $33,000 in additional revenue per clinician for new evaluations and $30,000 per year for patient visits.³

By reducing manual entry and record duplication, organizations can minimize errors in patient care and improve data accuracy across teams. The integration also supports a three-step implementation process that simplifies adoption for Epic teams, ensuring a seamless transition.

Workflow optimization

Epic integration allows simplified scheduling and appointment management, as well as efficient patient intake and follow-up procedures. With direct integration, providers can access all necessary tools within a single platform, reducing the need to switch between multiple systems and minimizing workflow disruptions. By eliminating redundant data entry, organizations enable clinicians to quickly assign care programs, generate patient records instantly, and electronically share treatment plans—all within Epic. 

Clinical documentation improvement

With standardized documentation templates, organizations can save time, reduce errors, and ensure consistency across providers. These templates can be shared across departments, allowing teams to work from the same structured format. Additionally, they can be automatically populated with patient data, eliminating redundancy and ensuring accurate, real-time record-keeping.

Patient engagement and outcomes

Integration improves patient engagement through personalized care plans and better patient progress and outcomes tracking. By integrating home exercise programs and patient education into Epic, organizations make care plans more accessible—improving patient participation and adherence. Clinicians can monitor patient-reported progress, exercise completion, and assigned care plans directly within Epic, allowing for timely adjustments and improved care coordination.

Medbridge now streamlines care delivery with MyChart integration, seamlessly connecting patient engagement tools with Epic workflows. This integration equips organizations to provide patients with easy access to their home exercise programs, reminders, and progress tracking—all within their MyChart account. With automatic data syncing between MyChart and Epic, healthcare teams gain real-time insights into patient adherence and engagement. This allows for more proactive intervention, improved care coordination, and reduced administrative burden.

The Value of Epic Direct Integration for Clinicians

Improved access to information

Integrating Medbridge with Epic allows immediate access to comprehensive patient data at the point of care and easier collaboration with other healthcare providers. Clinicians can quickly retrieve treatment history, patient progress, and adherence data without switching between platforms, ensuring more efficient and informed decision-making.

Time savings

Integration helps clinicians save time by automating routine tasks and data entry, reducing administrative burden and allowing them to focus more on patient care. With automation reducing documentation demands, providers can shift their focus from administrative tasks to patient care, ultimately improving adherence rates. In fact, patients who receive their care programs electronically demonstrate an engagement rate of over 80 percent³—significantly higher than those using non-digital methods, resulting in improved treatment outcomes.

Enhanced compliance and reporting

By integrating Medbridge solutions with Epic, organizations can more easily ensure regulatory compliance and generate reports and analytics. Standardized documentation helps maintain accurate and consistent patient records, reducing errors and improving audit readiness.

Getting Started with Epic Direct Integration

To help your organization begin leveraging the benefits of an Epic integration, here are some key resources:

Microlearning course: Getting Started with Medbridge's Epic Integration

Medbridge Help Center article: What Is an Epic Direct Integration?

Blog article: Medbridge and Epic Direct Integration: Your Biggest Questions Answered

Blog article: How EMR Integration Drives Better Outcomes

Training and Support

Medbridge is designed to integrate seamlessly with Epic Showroom, simplifying workflows for providers at the point of care while also improving the patient experience and your organization's bottom line.

The Medbridge Implementation Team is dedicated to facilitating a smooth transition into the integrated experience. From beginning to end, organizations using Medbridge Epic Direct Integration have access to an assigned Integration Specialist and Integration Engineer who will manage the project, consult on the solution that best fits an organization's needs and goals, and provide product training to empower teams as they weave Medbridge HEP into their everyday workflows.

Learn more or request a demo.

References

1. https://www.definitivehc.com/resources/healthcare-insights/hospitals-and-health-systems-implementing-epic

2. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1661624/

3. https://support.medbridge.com/hc/en-us/articles/27332462428179-What-is-an-Epic-Direct-Integration