DPH reports EPIC project on budget and pivoting from pandemic support to care coordination

The Department of Public Health reported a quarterly EPIC update on July 20, describing how the electronic health record implementation supported the city’s COVID response and outlining next steps for broader care‑coordination tools.

Chief Information Officer Eric Raffin said EPIC was indispensable during the pandemic: the platform supported rapid creation of testing workflows, mobile vaccination clinics on tablets, multilingual MyChart registration and a daily person‑level hospitalization repository used for operational planning. He said the EPIC program is tracking a projected positive budget variance of just over $1 million through the contract period and has consolidated several legacy systems (for example, outpatient pharmacy consolidation under the Willow module).

Mr. Raffin described recent go‑lives and upcoming work: Willow ambulatory pharmacy (completed), several population health clinics and occupational health are live; EPIC Wave 2c implementations are underway; Wave 3 will examine community behavioral health integration and enterprise care management; Wave 4 plans include EPIC’s Beaker laboratory information system to replace multiple lab systems. He highlighted efforts to integrate social‑determinants data (housing status from the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, care teams and shared care plans) to support whole‑person care and in‑application alerts and workflows for referrals and wraparound services.

Commissioners praised the technical and operational work and noted the potential for EPIC to support equitable vaccine outreach and ongoing pandemic operations. Staff said integrated video visits and further optimization are in procurement and planning stages.

No commission vote was taken; the CIO invited continued oversight and questions from the commission.