Hospitals using EPIC in Oregon/Washington

[WagnerRN]

I am in the process of getting RN licenses by endorsement/reciprocity to Oregon and Washington. I would like to know if what organizations are currently using EPIC and/or planning to go-live in the near future? I know Providence so far is getting involved with EPIC, but what about Swedish, UW, Franciscian, Kaiser?? I have been an EPIC super user and prefer to work at a hospital using EPIC when I relocate sometime in the near future.

Also, I plan to go to graduate school for nursing informatics.. Are any of the above organizations supportive in nursing informatics and foster career growth into the field? I am not asking information in how do I get into the field or how to get a job since that is already addressed frequently in this forum. I will continue to work as a floor RN while going PT/FT for a MSN in nursing informatics but it would be helpful to know what hospitals are using EPIC and has been known to support their employees growing into informatics. Some are better than others. I will also post a thread about EPIC in the regional forums.

Any information will be appreciated.

[stephenfnielsen]

Ones that I know:

Oregon:

Portland (basically all Portland hospitals)

-OHSU: strong RN informatics

-Providence: strong informatics, but I don't know how much RN influence there is

-Kaiser Permenente: strong informatics, but I think you would find it extermly difficult to find a job without informatics experience and a history with KP.

-Legacy: same as providence

Non-Portland:

-Salem: best informatics team in the world (okay, I work there)

-Rogue Valley: went live this year, not sure where they stand, but generally speaking, informatics teams are huge during the go-live period and then wind down. This isn't true however if the facility relies heavily on contractors...

-Good Samaritan Medical Center (based in Corvaills, five hospital system). They recently selected Epic as their vendor of choice and tentatively plan on going live in ~18 months.

Washington:

I know much less about WA, but if I had to pull something out of my backside I'd say that Salmon Creek (Vancouver), Swedish and UW all have fairly robust informatics departments.

[WagnerRN]

Thank you for sharing! I love both Oregon and Washington, it may be tough deciding between Portland Metro area and Seattle but it may boil down to a job or where I am going for informatics (UW or OHSU)..