South Central Regional Medical Center, together with consortium partners Covington County Hospital, Magee General Hospital, Simpson General Hospital and Smith County Emergency Hospital, officially launched the Epic electronic health record (EHR) system on Jan. 31 — marking a historic milestone for South Mississippi. The coordinated go‑live of five Mississippi hospitals in a single day represents one of the region’s largest unified health technology transformations to date.

The launch also sets a new Epic record: SCRMC went live with nine Aura groups, the highest number ever achieved by an organization implementing Epic. The previous record was six.

With Aura, providers can place specialty diagnostic lab tests and device orders directly in their routine workflow, just as they would for standard inpatient or outpatient labs. Results return seamlessly into the chart without separate portals or complex point‑to‑point integrations. The improvement expands access to specialty testing, reduces administrative burden, brings more discrete data into the medical record and enhances the quality and efficiency of patient care.

Another noteworthy milestone in the go-live endeavor is the successful integration of genomic indicators into the patient’s chart. Internal genetic testing will flow into the patient’s chart, and Care Everywhere will add genetic test data from outside our organization just as seamlessly.

With the Genomics module in place, care teams at South Central and the partner hospitals now benefit from advanced decision support for drug–gene interactions and hereditary disease risk. This capability equips clinicians with critical insights for optimizing medication dosing, preventing adverse drug reactions, informing treatment strategies and delivering personalized screening recommendations for hereditary cancer and cardiovascular conditions.

SCRMC began its “Race to Epic” initiative in January 2025, with physicians, nurses, clinic teams and support staff investing thousands of hours in system build, training and implementation. According to hospital administration, the project represents one of the most significant investments in the organization’s history and will transform billing, clinical documentation, operations and other key services across the enterprise.

Beyond improving care coordination for patients in rural communities, the initiative has also contributed to local economic growth by creating more than 60 new jobs. These are roles that will continue supporting the system’s success in the years ahead.

“Going live on Epic across five hospitals in a single day was no small effort,” President and CEO Gregg Gibbes said. “It was one of the most complex, demanding and positively impactful moments in the history of these organizations. What we accomplished together will shape how we care for our communities for years to come, and I am incredibly proud of our teams.”

As part of becoming Epic customers, the hospitals can now offer patients a robust online patient portal known as MyChart.

MyChart offers convenient access to health information and offers tools to manage appointments, communicate with care teams and view test results from a smartphone or computer.

“In the first two weeks of Epic go-live, we have had more than 4,600 MyChart activations,” Chief Administrative Officer Sam Andrus said. “We are already seeing patients utilizing the many conveniences of MyChart, such as messaging a provider through the portal, reviewing test results at their leisure and receiving offers for sooner appointments through a feature called Fast Pass. This truly provides an empowering experience for patients to be active participants in their health care experience.”

Patients may sign up using an activation code provided during a clinic visit, in an After Visit Summary, or self-register without a code by visiting mychart.scrmc.com/mychart. Patients with MyChart accounts at other health care entities will need to create a new account, specific to SCRMC or its partners, which can then be linked for easier viewing.

“Now live, these hospitals are fully connected across facilities and care teams, creating a unified system that expands access, strengthens coordination and ultimately delivers better outcomes for the patients we serve,” said Gibbes.

As the world’s leading electronic health record system, Epic supports SCRMC’s continued investment in delivering exceptional, patient-centered care to the people of South Mississippi.