Epic EHR Integration
Connect an Epic environment with Qvera Interface Engine (QIE) to support healthcare data exchange.
Bring the systems and data flows around your Epic environment together.
How does QIE work as an Epic HL7 interface engine?
Use QIE to build and operate the connections between Epic and the systems and workflows that matter to your organization.
Epic publishes API and interface specifications through open.epic, but each Epic customer operates an independent instance and determines which applications and connections are authorized. The available path depends on those decisions and the specific workflow.
Epic’s developer guidance says that an Epic HL7 interface is more commonly routed through an interface engine than connected directly to Epic, and that high-volume feeds such as outgoing ADT almost always go to the engine first, then on to each receiving system. QIE receives and sends HL7 over MLLP, and one Epic feed can branch to several destinations that process independently. Each Epic organization configures its own patient ID types and the HL7 version each interface expects, so QIE mappings can adjust each message to match.
Which Epic integration paths are available?
The appropriate path depends on the systems, data flows, interface specifications, and authorized access available in your environment.
HL7 interfaces
QIE can receive, transform, route, and deliver the HL7 messages made available for your implementation.
FHIR APIs and open.epic
Where an authorized endpoint and required access are available, QIE can support FHIR and API integration patterns for approved workflows. Epic’s open.epic resources provide specifications and tools that help determine the appropriate customer-level path.
Implementation scope
Confirm the source and target systems, interface specifications, transport and security requirements, testing responsibilities, and ongoing operating model before implementation.
Which Epic data flows can QIE support?
Integration patterns can include the following. The final scope depends on the licensed products, configured interfaces, data model, workflow, and approved access in your environment.
- Patient and encounter updates. Exchange available patient identity, registration, and encounter information with the systems that need it.
- Results exchange. Connect available results transactions between Epic and the connected information systems or repositories that rely on them.
- Beaker lab orders and results. Route lab orders from outside systems into Beaker, Epic’s laboratory system, and send Beaker orders and results on to outside labs and clinical systems.
- Clinical documents and reports. Route the documents and reports needed by connected clinical and operational processes where the available interfaces support them.
- FHIR-based data access. Support authorized data-access workflows through available FHIR R4 resources and APIs.
When QuadMed moved to Epic, it replaced separate outbound channels with a single QIE channel for all immunizations, shaped to each state registry’s rules and format. The Oregon Clinic used QIE to connect its GE Centricity EHR with two area hospital systems’ Epic EHRs in both directions, and hospital clinicians could then query the clinic’s records through Care Everywhere, Epic’s patient record exchange.
Epic’s interface catalog on open.epic lists Qvera among current integrations for its Incoming Patient Administration and Incoming Clinical Documentation Flowsheet Data interfaces and its IHE XCA and XDS.b document exchange.
Related Epic case studies: QuadMed: Epic interoperability made easy and The Oregon Clinic: Bi-directional Epic integration alleviates physician burden.
Build, monitor, and maintain Epic interfaces
Build and test
Configure routing, mapping, transformation, and destination behavior for the interfaces your organization needs.
Operate and troubleshoot
Monitor interface activity and queues, investigate errors, and replay or resolve affected messages from one operational platform.
Choose the service approach
Use QIE with your own integration team, or add training, fixed-scope integration work, dedicated engineers, or fully managed integration services. Explore Integration Services for the approach that fits your team.
Continue evaluating QIE: Security and compliance and licensing and pricing.
