EpicCare Link
What is EpicCare link?
Our EpicCare Link is a secure web-based portal that provides access to shared patient electronic medical record information so we can better coordinate care.
EpicCare Link grants access to patients’ charts based on referrals, established relationships between patients and providers or after they’ve provided patient demographics including full name, date of birth and other identifying information. Access is provisioned on a group-by-group basis and by role within the group to qualifying organizations.
For organizations that do not have access, a physician, practice manager, director or legal signing authority may submit an application to request access for their group.
What is available in EpicCare Link?
Within EpicCare Link your staff will be able to view your patients’ medical information from Advocate Health Care and Aurora Health Care, including:
- Patient demographic and care team information
- Inpatient face sheets
- Hospital admissions and discharges
- Outpatient visits
- Lab and imaging results (reports only, images not available yet)
- Procedure reports
- Coverage and benefits information
You can also receive notifications about your patients based on events at Advocate locations including:
- Admissions and discharges
- Outpatient visits
- Results
- Referrals
EpicCare Link allows you to exchange messages with our clinicians via In Basket.
How is EpicCare Link access managed?
Access is managed by one or more site administrators per group. Ideally a group will have at least two administrators, so there is a primary contact and a backup to prevent lockouts. These users are typically practice or office managers, supervisors or directors.
Site administrators have the ability to:
- Deactivate users that no longer need access to EpicCare Link or have left the organization.
- Reset a password for a user that is unable to log in to EpicCare Link after five failed login attempts.
- Unblock a user’s two-factor authentication.
- Request access for new users by submitting the new account request for new users within the application.
Site administrators are required to:
- Review First Access Reports on a regular basis to monitor appropriate use and who is accessing patient records.
- Review their team's access on a quarterly basis (Jan. 1, April 1, July 1, and Oct. 1) and complete site verification within 14 days. This review only takes a few minutes and only one of your site administrators needs to review and confirm their users’ access status. If site verification is not completed within 14 days, users from your group will be unable to access the system until verification is completed.
Frequently asked questions
Getting Started
If your organization does not have access already, an office manager, director, physician or person of authority can complete the new site application to request access.
There are no fees associated with using EpicCare Link.
To access EpicCare Link you need a PC or Macintosh computer, a high speed or DSL internet connection, and a current version of Chrome, Firefox or Microsoft Edge. (EpicCare Link is not supported from Internet Explorer, Safari or on any browsers on mobile devices.)
EpicCare Link logins require the use of two-factor authentication via email address or an authenticator app on a mobile device such as Epic Authenticator, Google Authenticator or DUO.
Citrix is NOT needed to access EpicCare Link.
Yes, each user is required to electronically sign a confidentiality agreement and accept the EpicCare Link User Agreement prior to accessing the system.
No, all tip sheets and video walk-throughs are provided after logging in to EpicCare Link from the homepage under the Quick Links section.
Advocate conducts periodic audits to protect the privacy of our patients and when issues are reported to us.
Accessing EpicCare Link
We require the following personal identifiers: birth date, social security number, the address of where you physically work, phone number, email address, job title or role, and National Provider Identifier (NPI) if applicable.
Sharing logins with another individual is prohibited. The user’s email address for access also cannot be shared and no two accounts can use the same email address.
You must log in at least every 90 days for your account to remain active.
You must reset your password every 180 days. You will receive email notifications to the address on file. You can reset your password at any time or your site administrator can help if you are locked out of your account.
Yes, the site administrator can help a user reset their two-factor authentication in EpicCare Link under the admin tab.
No, you're not able to change your username.
Two emails will be sent to the email address provided. The first is an auto-generated email with your login credentials, and you are required to register your account and accept the confidentiality agreement. The first email will be sent within one to two days after you’ve submitted your application.
The second email will be sent upon review and approval by our team within seven business days. The second email is the confirmation that your account is active and includes registration steps, how to set up two-factor authentication and how to get started using EpicCare Link.