One of the biggest announcements at last year’s Epic UGM was Epic’s decision to develop a fully native ERP application as part of the Epic software suite. Epic has now taken the next step and shared information on the Teamwork Staff Scheduling application that has been rolled out in the EpicOps ERP solution.
To learn more about Epic’s efforts in the ERP space, Healthcare IT Today chatted with Aparna Sridhar, VP of EpicOps at Epic. Check out our interview below to learn more.
Why did Epic decide to start creating ERP software that’s on the same system as the Epic EHR?
Aparna: Customers asked us to! Back in 2023, when I was a developer for patient scheduling, I was helping automate provider clinic schedules. Customers always asked, “What about providers who have clinic time, and round in the hospital, and do surgery?” For academics, that also includes accounting for training and research time. With workforce shortages, creating these schedules was a huge administrative burden—filling tens of thousands of shifts every staffing cycle and manually balancing department rules and clinician preferences. Additionally, customers needed several systems to be able to schedule different types of staff—like providers, nurses, and support staff—but none of those systems could integrate with their Epic assignment workflows.
So we created Teamwork to help organizations automate their staff scheduling in one place, using clinical data that already exists in Epic. In addition to staff, Teamwork can also handle scheduling for space, like exam rooms. We released that in November 2024 just as supply shortages, huge spikes in supply costs, and Medicaid cuts took hold; health system operating margins were running very thin, and our customers needed our help to run a lean and efficient operation.
We bring a focus on healthcare and deep integration across the health system that’s unique in the ERP market. So to help our customers, we’re moving forward to create EpicOps—a complete ERP suite built for healthcare.
You’ve rolled Teamwork Staff Scheduling as the first application in the EpicOps ERP, what are some of the main features and functions in Teamwork?
Aparna: Schedulers can use Teamwork’s Staffing Board to build a schedule, or they can let the Auto Assign feature generate a draft automatically—one that accounts for scheduling rules, staff capacity, and shift targets. Depending on the size and complexity of a schedule, that can save hours or even days of work per cycle.
Staff members can use the Shift Marketplace to check their schedule and swap or fill open shifts on the same device they’re already using for their other workflows in Epic. Nurses can self-schedule by signing up for shifts directly, and Teamwork also integrates with patient assignments, cross-unit staffing, float pool management, and census and workload predictions, so organizations can move nurses to where they’re needed at any given time. All that shift data feeds into other Epic workflows in real time—syncing with physicians’ Cadence scheduling templates, populating the On-Call Finder, updating statuses in Secure Chat, and keeping Urgent Care wait time predictions accurate.
Another major component of Teamwork is the Room Tracker, which helps schedulers monitor exam room schedules and track how room plans compare to actual utilization, so they can allocate space and time more efficiently.
Describe some of the benefits of having the EpicOps ERP solution in the same system as the EHR and other related functionality in Epic.
Aparna: Three things stand out:
-
- Faster care coordination with lower administrative effort—updating the on-call schedule for clinicians in real time is better for patient care because it improves care coordination, and clinicians love the ease of use.
- Fully integrated supply chain—forecasting future needs based on upcoming case history takes the guesswork out of ordering, so health systems don’t end up wasting supplies or delaying patient care due to inventory gaps.
- Financial data and clinical data all in one place. Health systems can consider cost within the context of clinical outcomes for better operational decision making.
Here’s another big advantage of a fully integrated supply chain: With a fully unified Item Catalog across the entire healthcare organization, recalls flagged at one site instantly reach other sites, alerting surgical staff and protecting patients while making it easier to replace the recalled items with approved substitutes.
Healthcare organizations continue to face tight operating margins and workforce and supply shortages. Operating more efficiently is more important than ever. That’s what EpicOps is all about.
What have been some of the results of having Teamwork for those healthcare organizations that are already using it?
Aparna: We’ve heard from early adopters that Teamwork helps them handle administrative overhead more efficiently and give clinicians more time to focus on patients. Building provider schedules is significantly faster. On-call updates that might have taken nearly an hour now happen right away. One organization was considering constructing more space, and with Teamwork they realized that they could continue serving their patient population by finding and using empty exam rooms more easily.
What’s the rollout plan for Teamwork for other Epic organizations that may be interested in it?
Aparna: Our first five organizations are live and 11 others are actively installing, and so far, those installs have all gone smoothly—they’ve consistently finished on time and under budget, so we’re confident in expanding at a steady pace.
Teamwork already has a global footprint, and we’re expanding that with groups in the United Kingdom. When we implement Teamwork, we do so in waves of health system staff roles. The first roles usually go live in 3-4 months, and all roles are live in about 6-12 months.
What are the next areas of ERP that Epic plans to tackle after Teamwork? What’s the future ERP roadmap look like?
Aparna: The next EpicOps module, Time and Attendance, helps manage how staff hours are recorded, verified, and paid. The first organizations to use it will begin installing this fall and plan to go live in 2027. We expect it’ll reduce manual work on both ends of the payroll process. It creates staff timecards populated with scheduled shift information and adapts to changing situations: if a nurse floats to a different department, the right cost center is assigned automatically. And when a nurse steps away for a break, we can route coverage to another nurse and track time accordingly. Managers will be able to review and approve time logs with confidence that the data is already accurate.
In early 2027, we plan to release Credentialing and Cost Accounting. Credentialing will reduce the time it takes to onboard new providers and maintain credentials on an ongoing basis. Cost Accounting will connect operational spending to clinical outcomes, giving leaders a clearer idea of what procedures cost and how those costs correspond to patient outcomes.
Later in 2027, EpicOps will expand support for supply chain management—including inventory, procurement, and vendor management—alongside additional financial functionality: general ledger, budgeting, and accounts payable. Our plan is for EpicOps to ultimately bring workforce, supply chain, and financial management into a single healthcare-focused platform.
Does Epic plan to build out all of the ERP functions so a healthcare organization can replace their ERP or are there areas that Epic doesn’t plan to do that an organization will still need the ERP?
Aparna: EpicOps is made up of six applications: Teamwork, Credentialing, Cost Accounting, Supply Chain, Financials and Workforce (HR & Payroll).
Teamwork, Credentialing, and Cost Accounting can be installed as add-ons that can work alongside both their Epic system and their existing ERP. For example, Teamwork can send time and attendance data to a health system payroll system.
Supply Chain, Financials, and Workforce are designed to give health systems end-to-end ERP support with a healthcare focus and native Epic integration—these are meant to replace, rather than supplement, a general-purpose ERP.
Some scenarios will be supported over time, but not in the initial release. Health systems that share an ERP infrastructure with a university, for example, will need additional functionality like support for academic program management. Similarly, ERP support for standalone health plans, diagnostics, pharmacy, and other allied healthcare areas is part of our longer-term vision.
About Jessica Crain