NEWS: Practice Affiliations & Epic Community Connect wins the 2024 UC Tech Silver Award for Operational Excellence 

The Practice Affiliations & Epic Community Connect (PACC) program at UC San Diego Health tied for Silver in the Mojgan Amini Operational Excellence Award at the 2024 UC Tech Awards. This recognition honors PACC’s impactful work in expanding patient access to care, integrating advanced Electronic Health Record (EHR) technology, and improving operational efficiency for a growing network of community affiliates across San Diego and Riverside counties. 

Summary 

The PACC (Practice Affiliations & Epic Community Connect) program at UC San Diego Health has not only transformed healthcare delivery and operational efficiency for our community practices and patients but also exemplified how strategic integration of advanced Electronic Health Record (EHR) technologies can expand access to care, integrate services, and streamline patient care across a growing network of regional affiliates. 

Narrative 

The Practice Affiliations and Epic Community Connect (PACC) program, sponsored by UC (University of California) San Diego Health Physician Network, is an EMR (Electronic Medical Record) technology initiative that has expanded the geographical reach and optimized the efficiency of patient care coordination across San Diego and Riverside counties. Since May 2021, this program has transformed the healthcare landscape in San Diego by enhancing access to medical services through a robust network of affiliates in collaboration with UC San Diego Health bridged by the Epic Connect EMR. 

Since May 2021, the Epic connect platform has facilitated over 2 million patient encounters across 12 community private practices and UCR Health. This includes more than 400,000 telehealth visits, reaching 380,000 patients. A notable achievement is that over 356,000 patients have actively engaged with their health data through the Epic MyChart patient portal, a testament to the program’s success in enhancing patient engagement and empowerment. 

Central to effective health management is the accessibility to primary care, a foundation that the PACC program robustly supports. Community patients can access primary care within seven days, a rapid response facilitated by our affiliates’ open scheduling offerings integrated with the Epic EMR system. A milestone in this journey is the integration of PocketDoc, an API-based mobile application developed by one of our largest primary care affiliates. This innovative mobile application enables real-time registration and scheduling for both new and existing patients directly into Epic, markedly simplifying access to primary care. This integration has spurred growth in the UC San Diego Health sponsored affiliated managed care network, which has expanded from 4,770 enrolled patients in May 2021 to 12,986 patients today, a 172% increase. Across the network, including UC San Diego Health, we have observed a 26% growth in enrolled managed care patients over the past three years. 

The Epic connect platform also significantly enhances appointment fulfillment and efficiency through its integration with Artera for text-based appointment reminders. This system currently reaches 89% of patients with upcoming appointments with our affiliates, securing an impressive 75% confirmation rate and reducing no-shows to approximately 3.5%. 

The importance of telehealth was underscored during the COVID-19 pandemic, when up to 90% of community patient visits were conducted virtually. The rapid adoption of Epic enabled telehealth technologies ensured continuous patient-provider connections and sustained affiliate revenues during peak travel restrictions. 

When patients are unable to meet their providers in person, it is crucial for providers to have real-time access to patient data from diverse sources. UCSD (UC San Diego) Epic facilitates more than 18 million annual patient data exchanges across all 50 states through Epic CareEverywhere (Epic facilitated Health Information Exchange) and other national health data exchange networks. This interoperability is particularly prominent in Southern California, where major healthcare organizations such as Kaiser Permanente, Scripps Health, Providence Health, MemorialCare, Rady Children’s, Loma Linda, and, most recently, Sharp Healthcare, all utilize the Epic EMR system. This seamless integration has provided community practices with a level of data access unprecedented in other EMR systems, proving to be a significant boost in their ability to deliver higher quality care to community patients. 

Supporting community practices in clinical workflow enhancements, operational governance—including revenue cycle and technology infrastructure—and third-party application integration are daily, weekly, and monthly tasks for the PACC program. Over the past three years, the program has handled an average of 7,200 Epic enhancement requests annually and conducted over 70 governance meetings, ensuring that our practices adapt swiftly to healthcare regulatory changes and technology demands. Notable enhancements include the “eCheckIn for All” feature, which allows patients to check in via their mobile phones before arrival, significantly reducing wait times; repatriation of patients to primary care providers following specialty referrals; providing cost estimates for patient care directly through the MyChart patient portal; and integration with Doctus to improve HCC (Hierarchical Condition Category) coding refresh rate by 33% in 2023 alone for one of our largest primary care affiliates. 

PACC’s commitment to customer service excellence has consistently been acknowledged by Epic over the past three years. Each year, we are reaccredited as an Epic Connect Host, achieving scores in the 95th percentile for customer satisfaction—a remarkable accomplishment when compared to approximately 250 other Epic Connect programs nationwide. 

In terms of practice management efficiencies, the PACC program has enabled large affiliates to maintain provider utilization rates between 70% and 100%, maximizing schedules and boosting revenue generation. From May 2021 to the present, the PACC program has processed over 2.3 million claims through Epic to the Change Healthcare clearinghouse, totaling over $1 billion in charges. During the recent Change HealthCare cybersecurity outage that started in February 2024, the program swiftly enabled connections to an alternate clearinghouse, processing over 174,000 claims totaling $78 million in charges. 

The network now includes 500 providers, up from about 300 in 2021, across primary care and various specialties such as neurology, orthopedics, physical therapy, pediatrics, OB/GYN, infertility, and mental health. This expansion significantly enhances patient access to specialty care. Over the past three years, more than 100,000 specialty referrals have been efficiently managed via Epic Connect among the network affiliates alone, demonstrating the system’s capability to streamline complex referral processes in the community. 

In conclusion, the PACC program at UC San Diego Health has not only transformed healthcare delivery and operational efficiency for our community practices and patients but also exemplified how strategic integration of advanced EMR technologies can expand access to care, integrate services, and streamline patient care across a growing network of regional affiliates. 

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