Epic Grand Central Applications Analyst (Salaried, Full time)

Organization Overview, Mission, Vision, and Values

Our mission is to improve the health of people in the communities we serve through compassionate, high-quality care, prevention, and wellness education. Washington Regional Medical System is a community-owned, locally governed, non-profit health care system located in Northwest Arkansas in the heart of Fayetteville, which is consistently ranked among the Best Places to live in the country. Our 425-bed medical center has been named the #1 hospital in Arkansas for five consecutive years by U.S. News & World Report. We employ 3,400+ team members and serve the region with over 40 clinic locations, the region’s only Level II trauma center, and five Centers of Excellence - the Washington Regional J.B. Hunt Transport Services Neuroscience Institute; Washington Regional Walker Heart Institute; Washington Regional Women and Infants Center; Washington Regional Total Joint Center; and Washington Regional Pat Walker Center for Seniors. 

Position Summary

The Applications Analyst – Epic Grand Central reports to the Assistant Manager, Epic Applications. This position is responsible for advanced support, troubleshooting, maintenance, build, testing, and optimization of Epic Grand Central and related hospital operations workflows. The role partners with patient placement, transfer center, nursing, registration, emergency department, perioperative, inpatient, ancillary, operational, information services, and Epic/vendor stakeholders to improve patient movement, bed planning, admission, discharge, transfer, transport, census management, capacity management, and cross-application integration; ensure application reliability; and support safe, efficient patient throughput across the health system.

Essential Position Responsibilities

• Maintain advanced knowledge of Epic Grand Central functionality, including patient movement, bed planning, admission, discharge, transfer, transport, census management, capacity management, application dependencies, integration points, and downstream impacts across the enterprise
• Lead patient placement, transfer center, nursing, registration, emergency department, perioperative, inpatient, ancillary, operational, internal information services, and Epic/vendor partners in developing Epic Grand Central enhancements, optimization initiatives, and workflow improvement projects
• Oversee Epic Grand Central application design, build, configuration, maintenance, and validation to ensure functionality aligns with patient placement, transfer center, admission, discharge, transfer, transport, bed planning, census management, capacity management, and end-user requirements
• Perform complex analysis, build, implementation, and optimization of Epic Grand Central workflows to support patient movement, bed requests, bed assignment, transfer workflows, admissions, discharges, transport coordination, census management, capacity management, and integrated hospital operations workflows
• Meet regularly with patient placement, transfer center, nursing, registration, emergency department, perioperative, inpatient, ancillary, operational, and administrative teams to evaluate Epic Grand Central workflow issues, resolve system concerns, and identify opportunities to improve patient throughput, quality, efficiency, safety, census accuracy, documentation integrity, and the end-user experience
• Lead the development and execution of coordinated testing plans for Epic Grand Central, including regression, unit, system, integrated, interface, patient movement, bed planning, transport, census, reporting, and user acceptance testing to ensure changes function as expected for end users and connected systems
• Serve as a leading advocate for Epic Grand Central users by translating patient placement, transfer center, nursing, registration, emergency department, perioperative, inpatient, ancillary, and operational needs into effective system solutions that improve patient throughput, workflow efficiency, census accuracy, reporting reliability, and user satisfaction
• Provide mentorship for team members and assist with team member training, as needed
• Ensure that programs and services meet accrediting standards for the Joint Commission, Quality, Promoting Interoperability, and other accrediting and governance programs
• Ensure the safeguarding of protected health information
• Maintain communication through various resources and tools 
• Monitor help desk software for new tickets and update and provide resolution for existing tickets
• Lead Epic Grand Central projects, enhancements, upgrades, optimization efforts, testing activities, and ongoing maintenance initiatives
• Identify and lead opportunities to improve Epic-supported patient placement, transfer center, bed planning, admission, discharge, transfer, transport, census management, capacity management, reporting, and hospital operations workflows through system optimization, standardization, and process improvement
• Adhere to all information services policies, procedures, and governance processes
• Lead incident response and downtime procedures

Qualifications

• Education:  Bachelor’s degree or clinical license, preferred.
• Licensure and Certifications: Epic Grand Central certification required.
• Experience: Four to six years of clinical or operational applications experience as an applications analyst supporting multiple modules/applications, with direct experience in Epic build, testing, implementation, troubleshooting, and optimization strongly preferred. Experience supporting Epic Grand Central workflows is preferred, including patient movement, bed planning, bed assignment, admission, discharge, transfer, transport, transfer center workflows, census management, capacity management, reporting, and integrated hospital operations workflows. Strong understanding of clinical and operational application dependencies, workflow impacts, testing methodologies, interface and integration workflows, and coordination with technology, interface, data, reporting, registration, nursing, patient placement, transfer center, ancillary, operational, and clinical teams is required.

Work Environment: This position will spend 90% of time sitting while performing work in a standard office environment and 10% of time standing and/or walking while pushing, pulling, lifting, and/or carrying up to 50 lbs.  This is role is considered a remote position with onsite presence as needed.

Notice: This job description is designed to provide an overview of the essential and principal duties and responsibilities of the position. The job description is not designed or intended to cover or set forth a comprehensive listing of all activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee. Washington Regional reserves the right in its absolute discretion to change duties, responsibilities or activities or assign new duties, responsibilities, or activities at any time with or without notice. Employees may be directed to perform job-related tasks other than those specifically presented in this description.