Change Management for Epic EHR

[Samantha Hoschek]

We are looking to use Jira's Service Managment Change Management module to track new requests as we move to using Epic's electronic health record.  I am looking to see if anyone is currently doing the same and if you are willing to share what your setup looks like.  Thanks in advance!  

[Himanshu Tiwary]

Hi @Samantha Hoschek ,

Welcome to the Community!!

My recommendation would be to Use one JSM project for change requests, with change types such as

• Standard for low-risk, repeatable changes
• Normal for planned Epic build or workflow updates
• Emergency for urgent production fixes

You can follow this flow for the required use case

Draft -> Initial Review -> Clinical Review -> CAB Approval -> Build/Configuration -> Testing/Validation -> Scheduled for Release -> Implemented -> Closed

For Epic-related work, useful custom fields would be

Epic module/application, Request type / change category, Clinical impact, Patient safety risk, Environment (TEST/PROD), Implementation date, Rollback plan, Business owner / clinical owner

If your team is also using Jira Software, a common model is to track the governance and approvals in JSM Change Management

link each change to related Epic/build tasks, stories, or epics in Jira Software. That way, JSM handles the formal change process, while Jira Software handles delivery work.

For the approval model for healthcare

 Application/technical review, Clinical/business approval, CAB approval for higher-risk changes

Also Include dashboards that would add a plus for you lke

pending approvals, changes scheduled for go-live, high-risk changes, failed or rolled-back changes, changes by Epic module or team

My recommendation would be to keep the first version simple and only add complexity once your process is stable. For Epic, the biggest value usually comes from having clear approvals, risk visibility, and release tracking rather than building a very complicated workflow on day one.

If it helps you can follow this structure

• Project: Epic Change Management
• Issue type: Change
• Request types: New build, workflow update, interface change, security change, urgent fix
• Approvers: IT owner, clinical owner, CAB
• Linked items: testing ticket, implementation task, rollback task

This gives you traceability without making the process too heavy.
I hope this adds value for your use case :)