The accelerated timeline followed a 2024 divestiture in which Ascension Michigan transferred MyMichigan Medical Center Saginaw, MyMichigan Medical Center Standish, MyMichigan Medical Center Tawas and MyMichigan Medical Center Towne Centre to Midland-based MyMichigan Health.
“We learned about the divestiture in March, started the project [moving to Epic] in September, and went live in February,” Dan Waltz, vice president and CIO of MyMichigan Health, told Becker’s. “This was a huge challenge because an Epic project of this magnitude usually takes 12 months.”
The newly transitioned facilities were previously using a combination of Altera Sunrise for inpatient care and Athenahealth for outpatient services, along with disparate lab, radiology and cardiology systems. MyMichigan’s decision to consolidate onto Epic was driven by the benefits of a unified system, particularly in terms of financial and operational oversight.
“One of the key reasons for moving to Epic was to centralize our operations,” Mr. Waltz said. “Having all organizations on one Epic platform allows us to analyze costs, length of stay, financial indicators and overall performance across the board with ease. Standardization is one of our project principles, and we’ve been able to maintain that.”
MyMichigan has extensive experience with Epic, having first implemented the system in 2017. Since then, the organization has completed more than a dozen Epic go-lives, however, the nature of the divestiture introduced unique challenges, particularly with network access and system integration.
“One of the biggest hurdles was that we didn’t own the network,” Mr. Waltz said. “That created access issues with devices, printing and network functionality, requiring numerous workarounds at go-live. But the staff at these new facilities were so ready for change—their resilience was incredible, and that really helped ensure the project’s success.”
Despite the technical obstacles, MyMichigan’s leadership and IT teams executed a structured implementation process, including readiness assessments and extensive staff training.
“Our marketing team, key leaders and vice presidents were engaged with staff prior to go-live,” Mr. Waltz said. “Epic’s standard model includes a 90-day, 60-day and 30-day readiness assessment, which ensured information was shared effectively. We also had an integration newsletter and robust internal communications to prepare everyone for the transition.”
Clinicians and frontline staff welcomed the change, having long expressed a desire to transition to Epic. Their enthusiasm for the new system helped smooth the implementation process, despite the compressed timeline.
“The staff wanted Epic, and they’ve wanted it for a long time,” Mr. Waltz said. “That made it easier because we had buy-in from day one.”
While the transition is officially complete, MyMichigan’s IT team is still working through optimization and fine-tuning processes over the next few months.
“We still have probably three or four months of work left,” Mr. Waltz said. “But the first priority was ensuring patient safety and system usability. Now, we’re refining workflows to align with our standard model.”
Mr. Waltz credits the project’s success to strong leadership support, a highly experienced IT team and collaboration with Ascension Michigan.
“Our IT team’s resilience was incredible, which played a major role in the project’s success. Additionally, we had strong top-down support, with engaged operational and integration team leadership,” he said. “My IT team is highly experienced and has done this before. Cooperation from Ascension Technologies was also crucial—completing this in six months was a challenge, but they made it happen. Ultimately, it all came down to hard work, commitment, and dedication.”