What to Know in Preparation for Your Epic Hyperdrive Migration

In today’s rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, being on the forefront of digital transformation is paramount for staying successful and efficient. As part of this evolution, health systems who previously worked in Epic’s Hyperspace are now migrating to the latest version, Hyperdrive. Epic, an electronic health record (EHR) system commonly used in large hospitals and clinics, has announced they’re moving from their previous Hyperspace version to Hyperdrive – a browser-based end user application that will enable enhanced integration options with other products. Hyperdrive is expected to offer greater user experience, better performance, and more security than its predecessor.

This migration is a significant undertaking that will require careful planning and preparation for multiple phases. With the availability of recent Hyperdrive versions, some health systems have already begun their migration – however, all Epic customers will need to officially migrate to Hyperdrive by the May 2023 version if they want to continue receiving future Epic upgrades.

The benefits of moving to this modern technology includes an enhancement and standardization of Epic’s integration abilities that leverages more APIs, a modernized user interface, new streamlined workflows, and gains in productivity. Migrating to this platform not only requires changes to Epic, but it also requires upgrades to the 3^rd party applications that integrate with Hyperspace, a review of all devices deployed across the organization, and a full assessment of the way Epic is deployed to end user workstations.

Know Before You Migrate

A Hyperdrive migration will require multiple phases – early prep work will be key to the migration’s success – and customers should be preparing for this change as soon as possible. In preparation for your migration, keep the following considerations front-of-mind:

Adoption Timeline

Migrating to Hyperdrive involves a substantial timeline and careful planning, and it’s crucial to have a clear understanding of the upcoming process to ensure a smooth transition. With the extensive pre-migration work that needs to be completed, it’s important to align this work with current upgrade cycles, allowing organizations to effectively manage team resources, training needs, and organizational change for end users. Health systems should also be assessing their project roadmaps, major Go-Lives, and other system changes and plan for a freeze around the times of the migration.

End User Device Assessment

It’s imperative to complete your device assessment early, preferably during the planning phase, that includes peripherals and printing, in order to determine all the required changes. It’s also important to acknowledge that you’re meeting all of the necessary software requirements. Organizations should be sure to understand Epic’s longer-term device requirements and determine how those changes should be implemented across their organization and included in future purchasing processes. Take inventory of all existing devices within the organization and identify all devices that require upgrades or replacement in order to meet necessary specifications. New processes are also needed to deploy Hyperdrive using Epic’s Kuiper tools – this may be new to many organizations and requires technical changes to build and support the new deployment tool. Developing an end user device management strategy will be essential to ensure proper configuration, security, and ongoing maintenance of devices.

Epic Integrated Third-Party System Readiness

Epic Systems integrates with numerous third-party systems. To ensure a successful migration, organizations should engage in collaboration with vendors early in the process to evaluate their current system’s compatibility with Epic and to understand the version requirements and costs. Organizations should also be sure to get on their vendors upgrade schedule – due to every Epic customer needing these upgrades, vendors may have a longer wait than usual for upgrade services. Custom applications will also need to be updated in order to support these changes, making it imperative to engage your development team early and test in the HYPE environment. You’ll also want to begin planning for a comprehensive training to end users on how to navigate and utilize these integrated third-party systems within the new Epic environment and ensure support management is in place in order to address any issues that may arise.

Organizational Change

Implementing Epic Hyperdrive will bring significant organizational change that can affect workflows, process, and overall culture of an organization. Even prior to the migration, the pre-work changes needed to complete the Epic configuration will impact all modules. Organizations need to develop a robust organizational change management plan to phase these changes out over a period of time and assess the impact that these changes will have across the organization. Health systems will also need to determine what type of training will be needed to support their staff and end users during pre- and post-work changes.