Solution Showcase: The Freeing Power of Testing Automation with Phillip Furukawa and Chris Paravate

Why It Matters

By slashing testing labor and accelerating Epic upgrade cycles, automation frees clinical IT staff for strategic work and reduces patient‑impacting errors, setting a new efficiency benchmark for health‑system technology management.

Key Takeaways

• Testing automation cut manual effort by 98% at NGHS.
• Quarterly Epic upgrades become feasible with automated regression testing.
• Automation saved 7‑10 full‑time equivalents for strategic projects.
• Regression incidents dropped from 161 to 45 after automation implementation.
• Automated scripts run daily or weekly, ensuring continuous validation.

Summary

The episode spotlights SH Test’s testing‑automation platform and its deployment at Northeast Georgia Health System (NGHS), a 1,000‑bed, multi‑hospital network running Epic across acute, long‑term and rehab care. The discussion centers on how automated regression testing reshapes the traditionally labor‑intensive Epic upgrade cycle.

NGHS faced escalating upgrade frequency as Epic moved to quarterly releases, making manual script creation and execution unsustainable. After adopting SH Test, manual testing time fell 98%, confidence in test outcomes rose to 86%, and the organization eliminated roughly seven to ten full‑time equivalents from routine testing, redirecting them to enhancement projects. Regression incidents dropped dramatically—from 161 to 45—thanks to continuous script execution and early defect detection.

Chris Pervate highlighted concrete metrics: a library now exceeding 500 scripts, a de‑identified repository of 4,000 workflows across 28 customers, and a monthly regression sweep that runs scripts on schedules matching clinical workflows. Philip Furukawa emphasized the platform’s “Epic‑certified” analysts who capture test sessions during upgrade windows, compressing a three‑week manual testing effort into three‑plus days.

The automation breakthrough enables NGHS to adopt quarterly Epic updates, accelerate feature rollouts, and free staff for higher‑value initiatives, ultimately improving patient safety and operational efficiency. As other health systems confront similar upgrade pressures, SH Test’s model offers a scalable path to reduce testing overhead and enhance digital health agility.

Original Description

What if you could reclaim thousands of hours of IT staff time, without cutting corners on quality? Chris Paravate, CDIO at Northeast Georgia Health System, joins Phillip Furukawa, CRO at SureTest, to reveal how they achieved a 98% reduction in manual testing time across their Epic environment. From 161 regression incidents down to 45, the numbers tell a compelling story. Discover how testing automation is reshaping Epic upgrade cycles, freeing up nearly 10 FTEs worth of capacity, and unlocking a faster path to quarterly updates and meaningful clinical innovation.

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Key Points:

03:08 Epic Upgrades and Testing Pain

04:47 Why Automation Matters

07:20 SureTest Implementation Playbook

12:00 Results Time and FTE Savings

17:48 CIO Advice and Wrap Up

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