Need up to 30 seconds to load.
hey guys today we're going to sit down
with an epic consultant and find out how
you can become one yourself
we're speaking with vince today vince
had no formal training in information
technology or anything clinical so how
does someone like that become so well
accomplished in his goals and getting
the job you want
events uh thanks for joining us
um so i know that you're an epic
consultant now um can you tell us a
little bit about what you do and how you
like it so far
um yeah no problem um i work on epic as
a
consultant i'm an analyst and um i
basically help configure the systems
um for how the hospital needs it to be
um and specifically i i work on the lab
the lab
team of it so
you know
for a lot of patient care one of the the
first things is um lab work
and
that can be customized across um
all the different aspects of lab like
blood or or urine or micros um
and basically just help the lab
and the hospital side configure to the
system to what they need it to be
cool
and so um
actually you know let me back up for a
second i probably didn't raise it
correctly um what can you tell us what
epic is
yeah epic is a um emr so electronic
medical record system um it's used for
for hospitals for clinics it has
billing components to it scheduling
components to it um it's a very
large probably
has a biggest market share in us for um
you know clinical documentation systems
so basically i just tell everyone you
know when you go to a
a doctor or hospital and then they
document why you're here today what your
symptoms are and then they write notes
about you that whole system is um the
emr and the company that
i work with a lot is called epic
gotcha so that makes a lot more sense
and you described um the lab portion of
it so is
epic like the all-encompassing emr and
does it support multiple components for
each department such as lab as you're
saying
yeah so i think epic as a whole um
i think some
some institutions they might take epic
as a whole package and say like we're
gonna use you guys for inpatient for
outpatient for a lab for
um cardiology
you know etc and then i think what you
see a lot is that before epic got really
popular um and before
a lot of hospitals have
you know different contracts with each
other and as hospitals buy each other
you'll see like a combination of systems
so like one hospital might have
epic for their inpatient and another
might have another system like cerner or
something for the outpatient
um it could all be in the same hospital
and then
yeah it's kind of the same i think
across all the different systems with a
little bit of uh
their differences i think for the most
part
most companies try to offer as much as
they can
gotcha thanks for that explanation
so um to become an epic analyst or
consultant i've heard that it's it's
difficult and so can you tell us about
your journey and how you got there
yeah so uh i first started out at lab
corp and i was just in their i.t side
doing um
new installs for their customers and
they have the propriety system that
you know you just go and install the
product um so it was always kind of
healthcare i.t ish and then
the way that i got in was i wanted to go
work for a hospital
that had the system and they just needed
to bring more people in to help support
it maintain it and install new um
new projects and features as it went
along um
so that's one of the most common ways to
to become an analyst and then after
being an analyst for a while i went to
another system
and
you know worked there for a bit and then
i went into consulting and basically
consulting is
kind of like the same thing except you
work contract to contract instead of a a
full-time job like your usual
um
work life
uh so kind of like how nurses might go
from like uh inpatient or outpatient
setting they become like travel nurses
and a lot of uh consultants
where we're traveling um
nowadays i think there's a lot more
remote just because of colvin and
everything else that's happened
um but yeah that was basically my
journey
gotcha i think that um
that comparison to the traveling nurses
makes a lot of sense especially to the
audience members who are most likely
going to be nurses or clinical staff
so thank you for that
yeah yeah they probably have a easier
time breaking in if they're already in
the healthcare field
um
i think a lateral jump like that into
the i.t side is kind of easier than
someone with neither experience right so
like if someone knows clinical they can
just say like i can teach you i.t but i
can't teach you clinical and at the same
time if someone's already in i.t they're
like all right let's try to give you
some
some clinical knowledge for this so yeah
i think anyone who's already in a
nursing field at a hospital especially
if they use epic or another um emr it
the jump should be a lot easier
i see okay so um did you have any i.t
experience at all when when you first
started
not really um
i was always tech savvy but i didn't
have real it experience and i learned
most of my
technical experience on the job at
labcorp which is what you'll see for
most jobs that like
you'll learn the majority of the on the
job um
no i didn't have a whole lot but i think
being being savvy and understanding how
systems work how database works
how networking works and it all speaks
to each other then
then having that core understanding
helps a lot and then you can kind of
like customize it to each facility but
um no i didn't have
i didn't come out of school with like
you know five years of xyz experience
gotcha so i'm sure you have a vast uh
like a multitude of knowledge for things
in within the field but when you first
started did you have a really good
understanding of hl7
of dicom of any of the the medical
standards
no not at all
when i first started
so you mean when i first started at live
corporate when i first started at um
emrs
oh well um let's start with labcorp
no did not so the labor job it was
mostly like um
setting up systems for
customers that were coming on to use lab
corp and specifically on the technical
side right like how can they order and
how can they view results so for lab
work they have like three products that
they roll out to their customers and
each of those three products it was
dumbed down to a point where like
they could hire someone with common
sense and say like here i need you to go
install this right here's the manual go
over there and install it um
so no not really when i got into the
hospital side and i was working on it
like i've heard of the terminologies but
i didn't really understand it and then
most places when you start they'll give
you if you have no experience and no
certifications they'll give you like six
months nine months whatever to just do
nothing but get certified so
you go to epic you go to class
um very regimented you know curriculum
and then you come back you take some
tests and you do some projects and then
for most projects or most certifications
i think you do about three of them and
then you get certified and then once you
get certified then you start
going into the system and start playing
around with it um
i would say all you the majority of your
learning comes from that moment on
afterwards like like how you go to
school from like kindergarten to high
school or college for whomever or even
more i would say up until that point
it's just kind of like building the
foundation and then when you go out into
the working world then you really start
to see
everything and learn everything um
so to answer your question no i think
once i started once i was certified and
i started solving real life issues in
real time that's when i learned that's
when i like started to ask people like
how do i do
this and this and for this ticket and
that ticket and then
with the experience you start to learn
stuff and then
at some point it clicked for me that
like
okay everything is one big database
systems and then the hl7 that's used to
like send messages across different
systems from like epic to cerner and
then like once that light bulb goes off
then you put everything together and
then you know that's when you can
customize using your foundation
wow that's uh that's great i think
that's really good information um so
let's talk about your your clinical
knowledge then um how did you get the
how did you learn like a medical
terminology anatomy and physiology
um
borderline like i didn't really have a
whole lot like i went to the doctor a
lot so okay that was my learning right
like
like between going to the doctor and
before going to the doctor i would
google stuff on dr google and then
that's when i learned a lot of the whole
clinical terminology and then i had
friends in the healthcare world right so
i have friends who are doctors who are
nurses and just like
just like chit-chatting about it and
going to the bar with people and
chatting like oh what do you do for work
and then they talk about their cases
whatever right like my
my wife was in um
cardiothoracic research and then i think
at some point she were she was in
maternal fetal growth research so you
just like as you get to know people and
what they do and like really like just
learn about
what their whole day-to-day is like then
you kind of just pick up and then you
you're starting to able to like talk the
talk but um you know i think for a lot
of people who have more of a clinical
background through a traditional
uh school method i think yeah you're
going to learn your a p's your
your biologies your you know chemistries
i wasn't really like
that great at school so
like i've heard of it there but like i i
need like real life
to apply it yeah like
it's just hard for me to just read
something out of a book and be like oh
okay that's what it is yeah someone must
have mentioned something about uh
about chemistry right
yeah maybe a professor or something yeah
i still wouldn't pass today
so to me it sounds like you're it's kind
of like a philosophy for you where
you're just constantly learning and it
seems like to me at least like just
even if you didn't learn in school and
even if you don't have formal training
something it doesn't mean you can't do
it and that's my
uh that's that's what i'm hearing from
you would you would you say that's
correct
yeah i think so i mean i think for me
personally like the whole
um traditional schooling system as we
know it of like going to a lecture hall
like that wasn't really that much for me
like i can't just pull words out of a
book and like visualize things if i've
never visualized it right like the
they just don't know what you don't know
but like when i talk to friends or like
as we're talking now
you know we could talk stop break it
down explore like that one specific
topic and go really deep and then come
back out and go on the full picture
again like that's the way i i will learn
best but yeah i think
for not just emrs for anything like i
love to learn nowadays and i feel like
for the most part you could pretty much
figure out to do
anything unless you're like inventing
something new right like
unless you're trying to do like some
spacex kind of stuff that
most people can't but if you like don't
know something like youtube will
literally show you with a video so
yeah i think for the most part you can
learn anything even without any
experience for like epic like
anyone can do it
wow yeah that's that was uh that was
excellent thank you for for reinstating
that um
for
uh like so can we talk about how you got
your your first job in epic i you know
because again it wasn't hard to get in
how did you convince someone like how
did you convince the hospital to sponsor
you
um yeah it was hard so before we get
into that i'll just break it down for
everyone that um might be interested in
epic uh specifically
as far as i know and i don't know if
anything has changed um i've heard of
like the main three ways uh you go to a
hospital they sponsor you they send you
for training and you get your
certifications
that's one way the second way that i've
heard of is you go and
work for like a big consulting firm and
you're a full-time consultant on their
payroll like accenture deloitte or
something and then very similar they'll
send you to um
certification and then put you on
assignments and then the other way that
i've heard of it is um you can actually
work for epic directly they're based in
madison wisconsin
uh they probably have a lot of
headquarters now internationally and
from what i remember talking to people
you could get any certification you want
while you were there
and then you know you'll work with the
clients the hospitals who actually um
use epic or you could be another role
and you might never be client facing so
those are the first like those are the
three ways i i don't know if anything
has changed um
but that's what i know as you know as
late of as like a couple of years ago or
maybe even last year anyway for my first
position
when i was looking i was in like
2012 and um it's tough i don't know how
it is today though but i think it's a
tough market i think that like
when you're young and you've never had a
big corporate job before and you're just
entering like it's just one big question
mark on the other side of the door right
so
i think now looking back on it you start
to kind of piece things together and i
probably still don't know the majority
of it but
but
in a nutshell it's a tough market most
people they want to hire on people who
come in with experience um that way they
save money on the certifications and the
trainings
and
probably the um
the turnover right like i think a lot of
people they come in they get their
certifications they they get enough
experience and then oftentimes there's
not a whole lot of upward growth so they
they move out into a new hospital or
wherever else and i think all that put
together just makes
managers and directors saying like hey i
want someone ready to hit the ground
running instead of like i want someone
new to invest in them and um
there's a high chance of them leaving
anyway
uh but for me you know that's just the
kind of stuff that i was up against and
then i didn't have a whole lot of
clinical experience i had like barely
some
i.t experience that wasn't really like
transitive to
to an epic role so i actually
would hit up anyone and everyone that i
could from friends that i knew were
working in the field that i wanted to be
to hr to a managerial title um i sent
out cold emails sometimes i did cold
calls and um
specifically for the way i got into my
first job i um got connected to
an hr person um there was an application
there was like a posting that you know
they needed some epic analysis i applied
didn't get it and just kept in touch
with them and then they told me that oh
yeah they have some roles coming out
soon but
you know hospital bureaucracies they
have to go through like a million hoops
before they are able to post it so i
think for like the next eight months
every week or every other week i would
just keep in touch with her
like i tried not to be annoying but i
just like you know wanted to stay on top
of her radar and be like hey let me know
when the opening is here you know or
like outside space with her before
friday ended and like hey let me know if
there's anything i can do and then
finally she said oh yeah this opening
came out um apply and then i also had a
friend who worked there so then like
they wrote on i think my resume or my
application referred by xyz right
and then i think just with that was like
i needed to put in all the strings to to
get in front of someone and then i
eventually got my interview
uh did well on the interview got a
second round interview did well and then
you know
last round of interviews just for
formality and then got the job so so
yeah it's tough and um
i think that like if you're trying to
break into something or if you want
something bad enough you really just
gotta
like throw out all the cards and all the
moves that you have and uh eventually
you'll probably get in
wow that was awesome so from what it
sounded like to me it sounded like you
had your odds sticked against you you
didn't have it experience or clinical
experience and
instead you use your network and you
were just persistent you just didn't
give up
yeah yeah i think you just kind of grit
through it especially at that entry
level point like you really don't have a
whole lot to offer people so whoever
you're competing against like
you know you you better do everything
and anything that's my motto don't leave
uh what is it called leave don't leave
any rocks unturned
yeah or was it stones
yeah i don't know
uh all right so
i'm gonna cut the uh the interview short
now just we're just gonna stay high
level and
put this up on youtube and see how many
likes we get and see what questions the
audience have for us and if it's cool to
you maybe we'll get back together and
just um go over those questions and
answers
yeah yeah sounds good um you know happy
to help anyway anyone again
awesome and before you go vince uh just
a question if uh
serious question here
if you were a a cartoon what would you
look like
i don't know
i don't know i guess you'd have to get a
caricature drawn i don't know
all right would you look like super
smart strong i mean how do you think i'd
portray you in this video
how would you all portray me um
probably really smart really strong
really good looking and tall like
everything just think the opposite of
you
[Laughter]
and on that note
thanks again vince yeah no worries any
time man
you
