HSHS Good Shepherd Hospital to Launch New Epic Electronic Health Record System

For Immediate Release – January 21, 2022

SHELBYVILLE— HSHS Good Shepherd Hospital will soon go live with Epic, a new electronic health record (EHR) system as part of their ongoing commitment to patient safety while also streamlining health information and sharing with other providers.

Information contained in the EHR includes care orders, test results, physician notes and reports, as well as patients’ medical history. The system provides a technology platform for this information to be shared with nurses, physicians and other caregivers in one integrated system. It will enhance transparent communication across locations and specialties.

Epic is used by a majority of U.S. News and World Report’s top-ranked hospitals and medical schools who are working collaboratively every day to improve patient care, innovate health care delivery and achieve financial health. All organizations using Epic can easily exchange patient data for improved patient care.

“Epic is a widely used health record system, used not only by our HSHS hospitals, but also by many of our physician partners, like HSHS Medical Group and Prairie Cardiovascular Consultants,” said Good Shepherd’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ryan Jennings. “By using the same EHR, clinicians will have access to more complete and accurate information about the care of their patients at Good Shepherd Hospital or in one of our clinics. It puts important medical information, essential for diagnosis and treatment of patients, immediately at the fingertips of doctors and caregivers, including built-in alerts that help improve patient safety” he said, “Epic will ultimately allow our caregivers to spend more time at the patient’s bedside.”

As part of the Epic implementation, patients will also gain access to Epic’s patient portal, MyHSHS. The portal is a convenient, secure and confidential resource for patients to view their medical records, manage their appointments, and communicate with their providers, along with many billing improvements. Patients can access MyHSHS from any computer or their mobile device at any time.

How to sign up for MyHSHS portal

It is free and easy to create a MyHSHS account:

Go to www.myhshs.org.
Login or create a MyHSHS account by clicking “Sign Up Now.”

As the system is implemented, keeping security of confidential patient records remains a high priority. Epic technology incorporates sophisticated mechanisms, including individual user passwords and firewalls, to make sure patient privacy is protected.

During Go Live

While Good Shepherd Hospital is using an electronic health record system currently, there is a bit of a learning curve for the staff. “Hospital colleagues have participated in Epic training sessions and are hard at work increasing their knowledge of this new system,” said HSHS Good Shepherd Hospital President and CEO Aaron Puchbauer. “We are blessed to have several shared colleagues who are familiar with Epic and have served as a wonderful resource for our team. Once we go live at the end of January, we do not expect any issues but do ask our patients and visitors to be patient throughout the next few weeks as our team becomes comfortable with this new system.”

To help with the transition, Good Shepherd reminds patients:

If you have an appointment for a test at HSHS Good Shepherd Hospital or one of the hospital’s clinics such their specialty clinics, please arrive 15 minutes early to assist with the registration process.
Please keep in mind that a new EHR affects every department of the hospital, including environmental services (housekeeping), food and nutrition services, and business office.
Please be patient with colleagues and caregivers as we learn this new system.

For more information about HSHS Good Shepherd Hospital, visit hshsgoodshepherd.org.