Platforms will connect UK HealthCare and its community hospitals

Project Blue-Connect is our strategic response to the challenges our organization has experienced due to rapid growth.

Published on behalf of Co-Executive VP for Health Affairs Bob DiPaola and Eric Monday.

We are excited to announce the launch of Project Blue-Connect, an important initiative designed to transform our organizational infrastructure through the extension and implementation of two advanced platforms:

Epic, our electronic health record (EHR) system that centralizes and manages patient health information and clinical workflows in ways that enhance health care delivery through improved data accessibility and interoperability, will be extended to UK's community hospitals.

Workday, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that integrates and automates various business processes, including finance, human resources and the supply chain, will be implemented initially at UK King's Daughters and UK St. Claire. The idea is to enable streamlined processes, enhanced efficiency and informed decision making with real-time data-analytics.

Why Project Blue-Connect?

Our organization has experienced rapid growth, particularly with the recent additions of UK King’s Daughters and UK St. Claire. This expansion creates incredible opportunities to expand access to specialty and subspecialty care throughout central and northeastern Kentucky.

At the same time, the growth of UK HealthCare also increases complexity and duplicative systems, which pose challenges to our operations and reporting capabilities.

Project Blue-Connect is our strategic response to these challenges and is designed to:

• Improve Clinical Quality: Using our instance of Epic across all three systems will enable us to accurately measure, track and report quality metrics improvement to benefit patients and demonstrate UK HealthCare’s positive impact on its Beyond Blue health systems.
• Enable Greater Integration and Reporting: By consolidating our systems, we will achieve a more streamlined and cohesive operational framework, enhancing our ability to generate comprehensive reports and insights, as well as develop connectivity across the University, UK HealthCare and Beyond Blue health systems.
• Enhance Employee and Patient Experience: The new platforms will provide a standardized and more user-friendly and efficient experience for both our employees and patients, fostering a more productive environment.

Implementation timeline

• Workday: We plan to implement Workday – a new ERP system – at UK King’s Daughters and UK St. Claire in the spring of 2026. Workday will dramatically improve our administrative and financial operations, offering improved functionality and efficiency. There are no immediate plans to implement Workday at UK HealthCare.
• Epic: Following the Workday implementation, Epic will be rolled out to both UK community health systems in the summer of 2026. This state-of-the-art EHR platform will enhance our clinical operations, enabling better patient care and streamlined workflows.

Impact on employees

We recognize the introduction of these new systems will impact employees differently across the organization.

Please know that we are committed to providing comprehensive support throughout this transition. Specific changes, along with detailed training programs, will be communicated as we progress with Project Blue-Connect.

Our goal is to enable every team member to be well-prepared and confident in using these new tools.

We are excited about the positive changes that Project Blue-Connect will bring and appreciate your cooperation and dedication during this transformative period. Together, we will build a more integrated, efficient and patient-centered organization.

Thank you for your continued commitment and support.

Co-Executive VP for Health Affairs
Bob DiPaola
Eric Monday