Albany Medical Center Launches Epic

In the early morning of Saturday, March 2, Albany Medical Center launched a new electronic medical record (EMR) that will heighten the delivery of care, better connect patients to our services, and improve the way our employees access information.

Albany Medical Center is the first hospital in the Albany Med Health System to launch the new EMR, Epic, which connects patient records for inpatient and outpatient services, scheduling, registration, and billing throughout Albany Medical Center Hospital, offsite clinics, and EmUrgentCare locations. In September, Columbia Memorial Health, Glens Falls Hospital, and Saratoga Hospital will join the platform so that no matter where a patient seeks care in the System, their information will be readily available to all our clinical teams.

“An electronic medical record is the neural network of a hospital and having a single, unified platform that spans across the Albany Med Health System will connect our services like never before and bring the quality of care we deliver to the next level,” said System President and Chief Executive Officer Dennis P. McKenna, MD.

With Epic comes a new patient portal that replaces Albany Medical Center’s myAlbanyMed platform. MyChart gives patients secure online access to their health information, allowing them to schedule appointments, request prescription refills, message their doctor, view test and lab results, complete pre-visit tasks, pay their bill, and more.

Epic is an industry leading EMR that allows our clinical and administrative staff to view and share patient information in a more seamless and efficient way, ensuring that care teams have easy access to the most up to date records without waiting on paperwork or time-consuming phone calls and faxes. With the new platform, the Albany Med Health System has also aligned patient billing processes.

“Epic is a robust tool that will offer patients a more seamless care experience and enable our clinical teams to better collaborate, share information, and deliver the most informed care possible,” said Dr. McKenna. “This project has been years in the making, and it’s incredible to see the hard work of so much of our staff come to fruition.”

Albany Medical Center employees have been training since January to prepare for the new EMR. While the Epic project officially kicked off in November 2022, work to unify the Albany Med Health System under one EMR began well before then. Input from all System locations has been paramount throughout the implementation process to build a platform that leverages the strengths of each campus and our strengths as a locally governed health system.

Over the next months, Albany Medical Center will work toward stabilization as employees adjust to new workflows. At Columbia Memorial Health, Glens Falls Hospital, and Saratoga Hospital, staff training and readiness activities will begin this summer ahead of the September launch.

For more information and FAQs, go to albanymed.org/mychart.