UC San Diego Health has strengthened the continuity of care for its university students by supporting same-day video visits and accessible COVID-19 testing, which has been streamlined through the university's connection to the health system's Epic EHR.
UC San Diego University connected its nearly 40,000 student health records to the Epic EHR platform at UC San Diego Health in August 2019. Doing so gave the health system access to 93,000 medical record documents from more than 260 health systems across the U.S., UC San Diego Health CIO Christopher Longhurst, MD, said in a Nov. 12 news release.
Moving the student health records to Epic allows UCSD Health to connect to their local and out-of-state health records. Sharing this health data with institutions including CVS, children's hospitals and cancer hospitals has helped UCSD Health improve care delivery for its students through offering same-day telehealth visits, COVID-19 testing and faster turnaround times for radiology results.
"Being integrated into a health system during COVID-19 gave us access to a number of tools which streamlined our ability to care for our students," said Angela Scioscia, MD, interim executive director of UC San Diego Student Health and Well-Being. "First of all, we were connected to a very efficient laboratory process for rapid COVID test results that were recorded in the students' charts within 24-hours. This meant quick notification to students with instructions on how to quarantine and receive care, if needed."