Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Health completed a systemwide Epic transition Sept. 6, consolidating eight EHR systems across its 33 hospitals into one platform. Now three months in, the transition has stabilized, with improved operational and revenue cycle performance as the system continues to optimize the platform.
“We thought long and hard about whether to phase in the implementation or go all at once,” Clay Ashdown, CFO of Intermountain Health, said during a Becker’s CFO + Revenue Cycle Podcast. “We ultimately opted to do a one-day transition on Sept. 6. There was a fair amount of trepidation about that … but I’m very pleased that we went this way, which allowed us to transition quicker.”
The health system is also working to modernize its enterprise resource planning system by shifting from multiple ERP systems to Workday. The integration is expected to wrap in the first half of 2026.
The Epic implementation, which was announced in 2023, marked a significant investment for Intermountain. The system joins Livonia, Mich.-based Trinity Health, New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health and Pittsburgh-based UPMC, in installing new EHRs, with these deals reaching up to $1.2 billion.
While going live with the transition was not without a few initial challenges, Mr. Ashdown said the single-day approach allowed the system to identify and resolve problems more efficiently. Although some of the refinements are still being addressed, Mr. Ashdown said the process has been “quite a success story.”
“From a revenue cycle perspective, I’d say … we got off to a little bit of a slower start, because there was so much emphasis — as it should be — on patient safety, on continuity of care,” he said. “[While] coding and the billing was certainly important, we wanted to make sure that those other key areas were addressed first.”
Since then, performance has rebounded, with Intermountain surpassing Epic’s median revenue cycle benchmarks. Mr. Ashdown credited the tight collaboration among the system’s business operations team, revenue cycle leaders, caregivers and clinical leadership for a strong integration.
“It’s really been the collective desire to work together, come together and find these solutions to really make sure that there is accountability and ownership,” he said. “That has been fairly remarkable.”
