NYC Health + Hospitals Receives Epic Honor Roll Distinction for Third Consecutive Year for Excellence of Its Electronic Medical Records System
Epic Honor Roll recognizes health systems for their improvements to provider ease of use, secure and seamless data sharing, workflow efficiency, and patient experience, among other categories The public health system received a $748,000 grant in recognition of its achievements
Apr 02, 2025
NYC Health + Hospitals today announced that Epic, the country’s leading provider of electronic medical records (EMR) systems, has named the city’s public hospital system to its “Honor Roll” at the Cum Laude level for the third consecutive year for its achievements optimizing its EMR and implementing best practices. Since NYC Health + Hospitals fully transitioned to the Epic EMR in 2020, the public hospital system’s performance has continuously improved. In 2024, 17% of all Honor Roll-eligible organizations were named to Epic’s Honor Roll Good Maintenance Grant Program. Highlights of NYC Health + Hospitals’ Honor Roll distinction include enhanced patient satisfaction and organizational efficiency, including providing earlier and flexible appointment scheduling, improvements to the program’s ease of use and customization for nurses and clinicians, and more seamless and secure patient health information exchange. The public hospital system received $748,000 in grant funding from Epic in recognition of its achievements.
“NYC Health + Hospitals’ distinction to the Epic Honor Roll three years in a row demonstrates our sustained, systemwide focus on quality improvement and that we have continuously built upon investments at the foundation of our care,” said NYC Health + Hospitals Senior Vice President and Corporate Chief Information Officer Kim Mendez, EdD, ANP, RN. “Like all of our information and technology service initiatives, the implementation of the Epic system has strived to achieve ease of use for our many providers and the constant pursuit of patient-centered services. We are proud to receive this recognition for our commitment to excellence and the state-of-the-art care the city’s public hospitals provide.”
“The Epic Honor Roll program serves as a roadmap to guide the optimal use of our medical records system by incorporating national proven best practices,” said NYC Health + Hospitals Chief Medical and Health Information Officer Dr. Michael Bouton. “The path laid out by Epic has helped us align our EMR priorities and drive forward the clinical, operational, and patient experience initiatives that have been so successful here and at major health systems across the country.”
The Epic Honor Roll Good Maintenance Grant Program evaluates health systems based on the following nine categories: Ease of Use for Providers, Ease of Use for Nurses, Enterprise Data and Analytics, Financial, Health Information Exchange, Infrastructure, Patient Experience, Population Health, and Staying Current. NYC Health + Hospitals’ participation in the program and sustained excellence over the last three years has ensured the public hospital system has continuously improved the efficiency and impact of the Epic EMR and implemented best practices for its staff and patients.
The public health system continues to see improved patient satisfaction with MyChart, Epic’s secure portal for patients to access their health information, communicate with their health care providers, and manage their appointments and prescriptions. Since Health + Hospitals introduced the Fast Pass feature in June 2022 — which allows patients to schedule earlier appointments as soon as they become available — patients have received an additional 13,000 appointments and moved up their appointments by an average of 29 days. This dynamic scheduling provides patients flexible, expedited access to care and improves the efficacy of providers’ appointment scheduling. NYC Health + Hospitals’ implementation of patient messaging in MyChart has also greatly improved communication between patient and providers, allowing for patients to asks questions without needing to place a call and care teams to focus on more high priority inquiries.
In addition, NYC Health + Hospitals saw continued improvement in providers’ utilization of the “Physicians Builders” and “Nurse Brain” functions. Over 80% of system providers now have customized EMR system settings, including growing use of the Physicians Builders function, which allow providers to customize workflows based on their individual needs. Similarly, the Nurse Brain function — which allows nurses to plan and work through shifts by organizing patient information and tasks in one location — has improved their work efficiency and satisfaction while protecting patients from transcription, dispensing, and administrative errors.
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About NYC Health + Hospitals
NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest public health care system in the nation serving more than a million New Yorkers annually in more than 70 patient care locations across the city’s five boroughs. A robust network of outpatient, neighborhood-based primary and specialty care centers anchors care coordination with the system’s trauma centers, nursing homes, post-acute care centers, home care agency, and MetroPlus health plan—all supported by 11 essential hospitals. Its diverse workforce of more than 42,000 employees is uniquely focused on empowering New Yorkers, without exception, to live the healthiest life possible. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org and stay connected on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
