In addition to the Epic@UNC Core Team and ISD, we asked for your help identifying the ‘Epic@UNC Heroes’ who helped make Go-Live #1 a success so far. Thanks to everyone for your patience, support, and work as we transitioned to Epic@UNC!
Submissions are posted based on the dates they were submitted
Stephanie Bohling of the CICC has been instrumental in preparing the CICC staff for go live. She helped to create a variety of resource tools for staff. She worked hard to prepare all our down time forms so that we were ready to go for downtime. She worked on the cutover and was here first thing in the morning on the 4th for go live. She has been a continued resource for staff and has been one of our Epic Champion. She has also been a Zone Captain for the Children Service. – Patricia Yee
Chelsey Glover of 5 Children’s was one of our Super Users. She was here the first three days of go live and was an awesome support to staff. She stayed positive and was an asset in helping others in using Epic. As she learnes more about Epic she shares her knowledge with others. – Patricia Yee
Caroline Ornelas has been the Rehab Center’s SUPER super user and one of our Epic@UNC heros! Prior to the go live, she spent hours going through Rehab nursing’s work flows to make sure everything was showing up correctly. She also created multiple tip sheets for various Rehab-specific documentation, and she put together notebooks for staff to use as references during the go live.
Despite working 11 of the past 12 days, she has been incredibly patient and calm, even when the rest of us are frazzled. She is a great teacher and is always available to answer staff questions or problem solve when the answer isn’t easily identified. She has proven herself time and again as a great leader over the last two weeks, and I am so proud and happy to have her as a part of our Rehab Team! – Lesley-Anne Bandy
Dr. Mike Eblan, Rad Onc resident, did a wonderful job today helping his team make it through a very busy clinic day. He is our Epic hero today! Thanks Dr. Eblan! – Kinley Taylor
Kelly Benson is a super user on 5 Women’s that has gone above and beyond the call of duty to help her co-workers be successful with Epic. She created reports for the staff to easily access their local census. She developed an extensive help guide for everyone to use, and have been an all-around great help to her unit. – Shantal Savage
Rebecca Moore has done a wonderful job keeping the Radiation Oncology Department well informed and up to speed for the Epic updates. She has gone above and beyond helping spread knowledge and track issues. Thanks Rebecca!! – Kinley Taylor
Dr. Seth Miller, our Cheif Resident in Radiation Oncology, has stepped up to the plate and brought strong leadership to the Epic roll out in our department. He goes above and beyond helping others and sharing knowledge to his peers and provider team. Thanks Seth for all of your hard work! – Kinley Taylor
Lauren Hamm, revenue/financial counselor, was very knowledgeable about the questions that I had. She was very friendly and eager to assist. – Gwen Settlemyre
An order did not go through to the lab with the blood that was drawn. The patient was waiting for results. Christian and his team from the lab got the result, and Christian hand walked the lab result on paper all the way the Raditation Oncology Clinic so the patient could be taken care of. Thank you to Elaine Roth, RN, Jane Hodge, RN, Lauren Terzo, RN, Dr. Mahesh Varia and the rest of the Rad Onc Team for their teamwork to take care of the patient! – Kinley Taylor
Lauren Terzo is our CNIV in Radiation Oncology superuser for nursing, and she has done a wonderful job helping everyone with their needs. She has done lots of good things to keep staff morale up and worked very hard to keep the clinic running smoothly. Thanks Lauren! – Kinley Taylor
Larry Klein, Cathy Rege, and Brenda McClure lead an Epic Huddle for all cath lab providers and staff first thing this morning that allowed team members to ask questions, raise concerns and make decisions. Plans for each issue were clear. Everyone appearred to appreciate the opportunity to discuss together, to get reassurance and to laugh a little.
A great way to start the day in an area with complex patients with critical needs. This is also an area adapting to some of the early Epic work flow challenges for in-pt/out-pt ADT issues and doing it in style! The outstanding leadership provided by Larry, Cathy and Brenda makes a positive difference! – Celeste Mayer
I was a Zone Captain this past weekend (April 5-6) on 7th Floor Inpatient Rehab, and Caroline Ornelas was a Super User for the weekend. When I asked the nursing staff how they were doing, their response was an immediate “We are great now that Caroline is here!”
And throughout the weekend, I saw what the staff meant – Caroline was calm, patient, a go-to resource for the entire nursing staff and found “problems” with Epic before staff encountered them. She went through her notes from training, trying to find items, buttons, links and tabs within Live Epic – and was quick to notice missing pieces that we could then report to the Command Center. As a Zone Captain, I appreciated Caroline being a prepared, proactive Super User. – Dianne Olmos
Karen Godsey of Highgate Specialties is not a Super User but has embraced Epic and become a wonderful resource to the nursing staff. She is intuitive, thoughtful and finds what ever is needed to assure patient care is done while helping staff through the process. Thanks Karen for just doing it! – Deddie Craig
Lauren Hamm in Financial Counseling has been a trooper during this entire Go Live experience and she’s made herself readily available to all offsite counselor’s! – Stephen Cearnal
Kimber McArthur is a super user at the front desk for the UNC Pain Clinic at Southern Village. On go-live day she kept her cool up front and was successful in working her peers through any front desk issues that came up. She put all her training to good use and was very confident in helping those around her. – Maryanne Berry
Jeanie Mascarella and Anne Spain in nurse staffing have been keeping us going so seamlessly! – Heather Ritchie
Thank you Renee Desimone of 5 Neurosciences for being a Super, Super User. Her support of staff has been wonderful! – LuAnn Grochowski
Kelli Benson of 5 Women’s helped us implement, prepare and problem solve our “best ways” to document. She prepared us by volunteering her time to come in and assist with staff who have been challenged by the change.
Michelle Khoury of 5 Women’s has been a “rock steady” calming presence as a super user in our unit. – Teri Wallace
Claudia Blaub of the Maternity Care Center is awesome! Supervisor on night shift that saved the nurses from having breakdowns. Willing to come in multiple days/shifts above and beyond what normally works. – Jamie Haushalter
Devis Barrington is a CST in the SICU. She has shown tremendous initiative in figuring things out. No challenge is too big for her to tackle! She has also been doing a phenomenal job mentoring many other staff in becoming more proficient in Epic functions. Thank you Devin for making this transition a positive one. – Maureen Heck
Mike Piscitello of ISD is a former SICU nurse. He has been absolutely instrumental in many ways to a successful Epic Go Live! From the build process for ICUs to attending staff meetings and giving informational tips, he has helped to bulid our confidence and capability. He continues to be available to listen, teach, mentor and FIX things for us. We love you Mike and thanks for being so outstanding in your new field. – Maureen Heck
Emil Usinger of HIM was a huge help with getting downtime forms approved for Go Live 1. He functioned as the representative for the HIM department, and his calm, thorough approach was much appreciated. We could not have done it without him! – Kara Shore
Gretchen Steelman of OR was cited by her director, Susan Phillips, as having provided consistent leadership during the OR’s implementation of Epic. – Dawn McKay
Crystal Meyers of the OR was sited by her director director, Susan Phillips as having worked tirelssly to provide consistency and leadership in the OR’s implementation of EPIC. – Dawn McKay
Both to learn more about how Epic works so she can troubleshoot in her daily work, and to help numerous team members, Lynn Egan of Heart & Vascular learned the ordering and scheduling workflow, came in on weekends to help with conversion, and is working with the clinic staff to enter all orders associated with reminder appointments. Thank you. – Linda Raftery
On behalf of the Office of Graduate Medical Education, I am nominating Dr. Clark Denniston. Dr. Denniston is the “GME Super User Hero.” Dr. Denniston enrolled as a Super User as soon as the registration allowed him to do so. As a champion of Epic inititatives, he has lead and encouraged GME resident physicians to embrace EPIC by assuming the role of Super User as well. Kudos to Dr. Denniston. -Cindi Trinidad
Crystal Meyers in Surgery has been integral in her past experience with Epic and has been willing to share her thoughts and input throughout the entire process – why re-ivent the wheel! She has been great at teaching staff also….. – Beth Paganini
Gretchen Steelman in Surgery has gone above and beyond training and facilitating all those that have been impacted with the EPIC roll out. This includes areas that are not UNC hospital only…..She is truly Epic! – Beth Paganini
Jesse Kaluka of UNC Physicians Network Headquarters kept the team informed, involved and supported. He took questions & feedback & got answers. He deserves the cape for an EPIC hero. – Mary Ellen Wells
The Clinical Care Management Super Users are 10 amazing people who have put together a post-Learning Street training cirriculum, complete with job aids, to train our specific workflows and help make our Epic transition as smooth and successful as possible. Our staff says this training is awesome! Our rocking super user team is Rosemary Resler, Rodney Fitzgerald, Sami Ray, Jennifer Spencer, LaKeshia Banks, Sandi Crute, Monica Wood, Kathleen Lowell, Trevecca Lesure, and Holly Head. Thank you for making us shine! – Beverly Wagner
Cheri Clay of the Clin Doc Team gives 110% of her time, presence, and talent to build and connect flowsheet rows for our patient plan of care (CPM)in such a way as to be interdisciplinary friendly in pointing us to evidence-based best practices. – Mary Hall, Chatham Hospital
Tara Sotak of 5 Chidlren’s went above and beyone to arrange her schedule so that she could help with the pediatric chemotherapy protocol validations. Her input was invaluable. – Patricia Yee
Robyn Mayer of 5 Children’s has been a SME, a superuser and has made herself accessible to help validate pediatric Chemotherapy Protocols. She worked the night before go live and got our floor ready for down time and go live with Epic. – Patricia Yee
A big thank you goes out to Caroline Braswell of 5 Children’s. Caroline has been a SME, a superuser and has made herself available to help out with Pediatric Chemotherapy Protocol Validations. She was formally our CDIC representative and has continue to be committed to seeing that the roll out of Epic was a success on 5CH. – Patricia Yee
Danielle Fried of 5 Children’s has been a superuser for 5CH/CICC. She has done a great job in helping others with Epic. She has recognized issues and has done a great job in reporting issues to the command center. She has especially been a great support to the night crew. – Patricia Yee
A big thank you goes out to Erin Blindenbacher of 5 Children’s for being a valuable asset to the staff of 5CH. Prior to go live she created resource books, cheat sheets and other supports for staff. She participated in the cutover and has been on the unit on a daily basis helping out the nursing staff. She has identified issues and has followed up on them to ensure resolution. She has been instrumental on making Epic go live a success on 5 Children’s! – Patricia Yee
Caitlin Cowleck of the CICC has been a superuser for 5CH/CICC. Prior to go live she helped to create cheat sheets for the CICC staff. She has been a wonderful support to the night staff. She has been a positive force as we have gone live with Epic. – Patricia Yee
Carie Gunnells of the CICC was instrumental in creating cheat sheets and resources for the CICC prior to go live. She offered her time to work during the cutover and was one of the Superusers for 5CH/CICC. She has been a great support for the nursing staff during our Epic Go Live. – Patricia Yee
Nakisha Woodley of UNC Physicians Integrated Billing has single handedly taken over responsibility for processing all research accounts for both HB and PB during this transition period. Her coworker recently retired and a replacement is not yet in place. This has left Nakisha to continue managing this work through both our legacy systems and Epic.
She is taking the initiative to learn every aspect of HB and PB research processes and workqueues, serves as a resource to research coordinators across the system, and is identifying issues needing resolution on an almost hourly basis. Despite the enormous responsiblity on her shoulders, she has done all of this with patience and grace. Nakisha is, without a doubt, an Epic@UNC hero! -Lisa G. Johnson
Elizabeth Hunt of OT/PT created a binder of Epic tip sheets and workflow cheat sheets for each of our OT/PT clinics. This resource has been of great value for both our department super users and end users during this transition. It is because of her organizational skills and support that our implementation has gone as well as it has. -Keith Compson
Mark Gwynne of Family Medicine has been the primary driving force behind getting the Family Medicine Center prepared for Epic. Months in advance, he convened and led a group of program leaders throughout our department to ensure that all concerns were addressed and everyone prepared for implementation.
He has shown exceptional leadership, doing the cheerleading and helping us see how this effort would help us become the model primary care practice that we want to be. He’s been tireless and thorough and inspiring, and we would not have been nearly as prepared without his stellar leadership. -Kevin Tate
Chris Greenwood of 4 Oncology explained to a patient how Epic will help her understand more about the care she receives. Chris showed the patient the screen of how all her lab requests were all together. The patient was very impressed that the information was so integrated. – Donna Kaye
Debbie Murphy would like to recognize Daniel Meeks of Inpatient Eating Disorder. Daniel had done a stupendous job and forwarding tips he receives about Epic. He has really enhanced the Epic experience for the unit. – Donna Kaye
Doreen would like to recognize Darrick Woods of ADU for reducing the anxiety when Epic first launched. Darrick always found a colleague who could help you. He also has done a good job at hiring new people who have had Epic experience. He is like our safety blanket and keeps reassuring us that we can do this. – Donna Kaye
Cathy Crawford of Labor and Delivery has been very resourceful in getting answers to Epic questions. When faced with a situation of trying to find out how to admit a newborn (the pending baby function)and not having the Epic command center available on Easter Sunday evening, Cathy called ED Registration to get their perspective. Cathy tried it what the ED Registration recommended and it worked. Cathy then shared this information with the rest of the team. – Donna Kaye
Amanda Smith and Beth Houston of 3 Women’s are both super users who have helped the staff on 3 Women’s Navigate everything. The classes don’t go into the details that Amanda and Beth were able to do just in time. – Donna Kaye
Mathew Newll and Danny Hill of the PICU were very helpful. – Donna Kaye
Jennifer Kelly of 7 Children’s is awesome. Any time we needed something she was available. – Donna Kaye
Julie noted that Hope McFarland of 6 Children’s is a super user who was willing to float to other floors to help out. She was very helpful to everyone on the unit as well. – Donna Kaye
Lisa Bernhardt would like to recognize Dawn Ellis of Newborn Critical Care for going above and beyond. She would often do research to find the answer to an Epic question and was very patient when explaining and helping the staff. – Donna Kaye
Paige Roberts of 3 Anderson helped with multiple things. She helped with patients, charting and answered any questions that we have. – Donna Kaye
Karen Vaughn would like to acknowledge Sharmila Soares-Sardinha of Neuro ICU for her non-stop helpfulness and coming up with new ideas for how to use the system better. – Donna Kaye
Karen Vaughn would like to recognize Amy Hudgens of Neuro ICU for making the nurses jobs easier and showing her concern. She practically lived on the unite- days, nights, weekends. – Donna Kaye
Terry McPhail of the PACU was able to multi-task beautifully. I witnessed her in dual support telephone calls with two phone receivers–one on each ear. She had an Epic help desk person on one phone, on her left ear, and a phone call from a provider on her right ear and was translating the needs of the provider to the Epic help desk person and thus saving the provider from needing to make an additional phone call. And all the while, Terry maintained her professional composure. – Donna Kaye