For a growing number of health systems, the Epic go-live or upgrade is no longer primarily an information technology project. It is a patient experience strategy.
Kerry Heinrich, president and CEO of Adventist Health in Roseville, Calif., is preparing one of the largest integrated Epic launches on record — a systemwide deployment across 28 hospitals and more than 440 clinics, scheduled for this fall.
“We are making a $500 million investment in Epic, going live this fall, to transform the patient experience across our entire system: one record, one connected experience, and care that is simpler and closer to home,” Mr. Heinrich said. “We are a faith-based and faith-driven organization, and that means something. It’s not just a slogan.”
The investment is huge but important to position Adventist for future growth. The idea is that a well-implemented EHR install creates the infrastructure for online scheduling, patient portal adoption, AI-enabled access tools and coordinated care handoffs — capabilities that are increasingly central to how health systems deliver and manage the patient relationship.
For systems already through a major deployment, that infrastructure is producing measurable results. At Care New England Medical Group in Providence, R.I., a go-live completed roughly a year ago has unlocked access pathways that the organization’s previous platform could not support.
“With our deployment of Epic over the past year, we have now introduced online scheduling for primary care, OB/GYN and certain surgical specialties,” said Roger Mitty, MD, president of Care New England Medical Group. “We are piloting an agentic AI solution to answer phones and book appointments in some of our busier practices that have historically had poor phone answering performance.”
Dr. Mitty’s team is also layering ambient listening software and AI-assisted inbox management on top of the Epic platform, tools designed to reduce administrative burden and recover clinician time, with the goal of creating appointment capacity without expanding headcount.
At One Brooklyn Health in Brooklyn, N.Y., the Epic-centered access strategy is taking shape at a safety-net system serving some of New York’s most medically underserved communities. Arthur Gianelli, president and chief transformation officer, is standardizing and optimizing physician scheduling so that appointment capacity is visible and accessible across the system, deploying an AI-enabled access center vendor for around-the-clock patient response, and accelerating MyChart adoption alongside expanded virtual visit options.
“The most consequential shift in patient expectations is the expectation of immediacy: patients want their caregivers to respond now, and they want appointments available virtually on demand,” Mr. Gianelli said. “This is as true at a safety net health system like One Brooklyn Health as it is anywhere else in American healthcare. Our patients live at society’s margin, but their expectations are not modest — nor should they be. Meeting this demand requires us to rebuild the front door of our system.”
The health system is also optimizing physician scheduling and capacity with technology and working with retail and specialty pharmacies to meet medication needs with responsiveness that patients expect.
“Immediacy is no longer a luxury reserved for well-resourced systems — it is the standard of care, and our patients deserve nothing less,” Mr. Gianelli said.
At Freeman Health System in Joplin, Mo., the Epic implementation is functioning as connective tissue across hospitals, care teams and the rural communities the system serves. Matthew Fry, the system’s president and CEO, describes the platform as a foundation for both clinical coordination and operational efficiency, supplemented by a centralized scheduling model and a concurrent Workday rollout.
“Our Epic partnership is better connecting our hospitals, care teams and patients, while new initiatives like our mobile behavioral health unit brings services directly to patients when and where they need them most,” Mr. Fry said.
At Inova’s primary care service line in Fairfax, Va., Craig Cheifetz, MD, frames the technology investment around what it creates space for. AI-enabled clinical note capture reduces the documentation burden that has historically drawn clinicians’ attention away from the room; self-scheduling tools and expanded virtual and walk-in options give patients multiple pathways to care rather than a single point of entry.
“We are adopting AI-enabled solutions such as clinical note capture technologies that reduce administrative burden and allow providers to spend more meaningful time focused on the patient during visits,” Dr. Cheifetz said. “The common thread across all of these efforts is recognizing that access is not delivered in just one way — patients want choices, flexibility, and care that fits into their lives.”
For Adventist, the technology investment carries both strategic and philosophical weight. Mr. Heinrich is clear that the Epic platform can deliver efficiency and connectivity. What it cannot deliver, he argues, is the human dimension that ultimately defines the experience for patients.
“Technology will make us more convenient, but our calling to love is what makes us more human,” he said. “Every person who walks through our doors should feel seen, heard, and cared for.”
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