Helena, Mont.-based St. Peter's Health is warning of a "temporary disruption" to patients accessing medical records and scheduling appointments caused by the health system's $25 million transition to a new Epic EHR.

From backing a new health data initiative to seeing its workforce jump in size by 18 percent since 2021, here are eight updates on Epic's operations, software products and partnerships reported by Becker's Hospital Review in July:

Daniel Barchi, CIO of Chicago-based CommonSpirit, said large electronic health record implementations often have problems that are far more than just technical, Politico reported July 21.  

Hospital leaders trying to balance the need to reduce the cost of the Epic implementation process and keep the installation program in-house are being very mindful of how they use consultants.

EHR vendor Athenahealth is facing a lawsuit that alleges the company stole trade secrets, used deceptive business practices and breached its contract, Law360 reported July 20. 

DeepScribe, a company focused on leveraging artificial intelligence to serve as a medical scribe, contracts with 200 humans to listen in on medical visit recordings and fix the AI's errors, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

Costs for the Veterans Affairs Department's Cerner EHR rollout continue to soar, causing tension between the VA and Congress, with some lawmakers wanting to ax the program, while others advocate for the VA to take one more shot at the implementation, Politico reported July 21.

Carl Armato heard a consistent sentiment as he was rounding on physicians: The amount of time they spent in the EHR was creating a burdensome workload. This led to a resolution-focused initiative launched several years ago at Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Novant Health, where Mr. Armato is president and CEO. 

Hospitals and health systems around the U.S. began charging for patient messages sent through patient portals as their clinicians became inundated with 50 percent more messages after the pandemic, but the charges haven't necessarily stopped the influx of messages, NPR reported July 21.  

Methodist Le Bonheur COO Monica Wharton is focusing on 'going slow to go fast' and keeping the total cost of ownership in mind as the system works to install a new Epic EHR.

Northwell Health CIO Sophy Lu told Becker's that the New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based health system's Epic installation process is a 'leap into the future.'

Universal Health Services is implementing Oracle Health's electronic health record in over 200 behavioral health facilities nationwide.

Greenville, S.C.-based Prisma Health is expanding its partnership with virtual care company. HealthSnap.

Here are the hospitals and health systems that are implementing new EHR systems or extending EHR systems to other facilities due to mergers or acquisitions:

A circuit court ruled that it would not lower EHR vendor Epic Systems' $140 million in compensatory damages that it is supposed to receive from Mumbai, India-based Tata Consultancy Services due to an ongoing trades secret case. 

In 2018, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs tapped Cerner to overhaul its EHR system. Recently, a series of slowdowns, legislative spats and open letters have again turned attention to the VA's EHR overhaul process.

Epic, the nation's largest EHR vendor, opposed some proposed changes by ONC that the agency says will improve interoperability, healthcare data exchange and health IT transparency.

CommonWell Health Alliance's network surpassed 200 million individuals nationwide, which corresponds to sharing electronic health data for about 62 percent of the U.S. population.

EHR vendor NextGen Healthcare is paying $31 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act, the U.S. Justice Department said July 14. 

Small, rural and safety-net hospitals across the U.S. are receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal funding and community grants to purchase and install EHRs.