Prevent Medication Errors with Epic Rover: A Detailed Guide

Posted in Epic

Maintaining accuracy and efficiency in clinical workflows is a requirement for modern healthcare systems. Epic Rover, developed by Epic Systems, brings essential electronic health record (EHR) functionality to mobile devices, empowering clinical and non-clinical teams to deliver better, faster, and safer care. For healthcare organizations looking to optimize staff efficiency, reduce error rates, and maximize investments.

Sheba Ninan, a nurse at Texas Children’s, shared how the Epic Rover app helped her catch a potentially harmful medication error before it reached a patient, and she was able to intervene in time. Sheba emphasized that tools like Epic Rover help nurses work more efficiently and safely, allowing her to “spend more time concentrating on delivering the best possible patient care.”

And she’s not alone. Up to 90% of injectable medication doses are scanned at least once using Epic Rover, highlighting how it makes workflows efficient across healthcare settings. Explore how Folio3 Digital Health, as Epic’s official vendor services partner, can help you implement Epic Rover or offer better solutions to cater to your needs.

What is The Epic Rover App?

Epic Rover is a mobile application that connects directly with the Epic EHR system, serving as an inlet for healthcare professionals to complete clinical tasks. The Epic Rover phone hospital app works on both iOS and Android devices, offering a secure and user-friendly interface for documenting care, administering medications, and managing various clinical workflows.

Mobile access to patient data with Epic Rover eliminates the need to return to stationary workstations or locate computers on wheels (COWs). Instead, documentation and task management happen in real time on the go.

From medication administration to specimen collection and wound care documentation, Epic Rover enhances the accuracy and timeliness of clinical activities while also contributing to greater staff efficiency and patient safety.

The Rover Epic app supports multiple workflows and helps with tasks like the following: 

• BCMA (bar-coded medication administration) 
• Flowsheet documentation 
• Lab collection results
• EVS users can take action on assigned requests 
• Transport notification 
• Work list tasks 
• LDA (lines, drains, airways, wounds) documentation with an avatar 
• Notifications about new Orders 
• Patient and clinical image capture
• Blood Administration 

Who Uses The Epic Rover App?

The Epic Rover device is used by clinicians and other authorized clinical staff who need mobile access to patient information and tools for recording vitals and verifying identification. Its customizable features adapt to various roles and healthcare facility sizes, and it’s available on iOS, Android, and other mobile platforms.

1. Nurses 

Nurses rely on the Epic Rover barcode scanner for medicine administration, the Rover healthcare app for real-time charting, and documenting vital signs. Phlebotomists use it to scan barcodes, match specimens to the correct patient, and document collections immediately, helping reduce errors and streamline lab workflows.

2. Respiratory Therapists

Epic Rover allows respiratory therapists to access patient charts and update treatment documentation. Whether adjusting oxygen levels or delivering breathing treatments, they can quickly and accurately log interventions on the spot.

3. Environmental Services (EVS) and Transport Staff

Non-clinical staff also benefit from Epic Rover. EVS and transport personnel can receive notifications, document completions, and coordinate with other teams from their mobile device. This ensures smoother operations and helps support a clean, safe, and efficient care environment.

4. Home Health and Palliative Care Providers

The Epic Rover iPhone application makes it especially valuable for clinicians working in home health, hospice, or remote care settings. Care providers can access up-to-date patient records, log visits, update care plans, and document services in real time, ensuring seamless continuity of care across settings.

How Leading Hospitals Use Epic Rover: Real-World Impact

The Epic Rover mobile app streamlines workflows and enhances data accessibility for clinicians. Some of the common applications include:

• Cleveland Clinic: A globally recognized leader in healthcare, the Cleveland Clinic‘s extensive use of Epic Rover highlights its scalability and adaptability within a large, complex organization. Their adoption underscores the potential for mobile tools to support a wide range of clinical activities across various departments.
• Ochsner Health: Serving communities across Louisiana and the Gulf South, Ochsner’s integration of Epic Rover showcases its utility in a regional healthcare system. Their experience can offer insights into how mobile technology can improve communication and efficiency across multiple hospital locations and clinics.
• University of Colorado Health (UCHealth): As an innovative academic health system, UCHealth‘s adoption of Epic Rover demonstrates its alignment with cutting-edge clinical practices and its role in supporting teaching, research, and patient care.

The Texas Children’s Experience

Jennifer Sanders, Clinical Informatics Director at Texas Children’s, offers a valuable perspective on the impact of Rover:

“Medication scanning creates a significantly safer process and improves compliance with industry standards and regulations. It’s a safety measure for our patients. It provides an additional safety net for our frontline nurses and clinical staff who are the last line of defense to prevent medication errors.”

This quote highlights a critical application of mobile clinical tools: enhancing medication safety. By enabling nurses and other clinical staff to scan medications at the bedside, the Rover Epic app helps to:

• Reduce Medication Errors: Verifying the right patient, drug, dose, route, and time electronically minimizes the risk of human error.
• Improve Regulatory Compliance: Adherence to industry standards and regulations related to medication administration is strengthened through standardized scanning processes.
• Empower Frontline Staff: Providing nurses with a mobile tool for verification adds an extra layer of security and confidence in their practice.
• Prioritize Patient Safety: Ultimately, integrating medication scanning through Rover directly contributes to a safer care environment for patients.

Features of Epic Rover App

The Epic Rover hospital phone feature set combines mobility, security, and usability to make care delivery more efficient and less prone to error.

1. Real-Time Documentation with Touchscreen Functionality

The Epic Rover app’s user-friendly design allows clinicians to document care with a few simple taps. This ease of use reduces the cognitive burden on providers and promotes better adherence to documentation standards. The touchscreen interface is intuitive, enabling users to:

• Enter and update vital signs
• Complete flowsheets
• Access care plans and progress notes
• View and respond to clinical alerts

2. Point-of-Care Mobility

Epic Rover healthcare app brings EHR capabilities directly to you, regardless of location. Instead of delaying documentation or relying on memory, clinicians can chart in real time, ensuring data accuracy and timeliness.

For example, a nurse administering medication can scan the patient’s wristband and the medication barcode, confirm the order, and document the action from the patient’s side. This kind of real-time mobility minimizes errors and supports better patient outcomes.

3. Integrated Camera and Barcode Scanning

The Epic Rover device includes secure access to a camera, enabling two critical functions:

• Barcode Scanning: Used for barcoded medication administration (BCMA), lab specimens, and blood product verification.
• Image Capture: Clinicians can take photos of wounds or capture images for dermatological assessments and upload them directly into the patient’s record.

These features enhance clinical accuracy and reduce reliance on manual entry, which can lead to errors or delays.

4. Task Management and Alerts

Epic Rover offers more than documentation; it works as a complete task manager. Users receive real-time notifications about:

• Medication administration
• Lab draws and specimen pickups
• Blood transfusions
• Environmental services and transport requests

Benefits of the Epic Rover Application 

Epic Rover resonates not only in immediate efficiency results but also in developing a safer, more satisfying, and coordinated healthcare environment.

Increased Patient Safety via Precision and Real-Time Information 

Beyond simply reducing errors, Epic Rover barcode scanner minimizes medication and specimen mismatches. It directly contributes to a culture of safety and prevents potentially life-threatening adverse events. 

Real-time documentation ensures that the EHR displays the current patient status, allowing clinicians to access the correct information on time. This promptness comes in handy when rapid access to accurate data has a significant impact on treatment outcomes.

Boosting Clinical Efficiency 

Epic Rover helps clinicians document data at the patient’s bedside, eliminating the cognitive burden of delayed charting and reducing the potential for inaccuracies. This streamlines workflows and allows clinicians to remain present with their patients.

The reclaimed time can be reinvested in more direct patient care activities, complex problem-solving, and collaborative discussions, ultimately enhancing the quality and personalization of care. This aligns with the growing emphasis on value-based care models that prioritize patient outcomes and efficient resource utilization.

Better Staff Satisfaction and Resilience

Increasing rates of burnout among healthcare professionals need a solution like Epic Rover. It simplifies routine tasks, reducing the time spent on documentation, relieving daily stressors 

Empowered with intuitive tools that streamline their work, clinicians and support staff experience a greater sense of control and accomplishment. This improved morale can lead to reduced turnover, enhanced teamwork, and a more positive work environment, ultimately benefiting both staff well-being and the quality of patient care.

Improved Data Quality and Analytics 

Real-time and accurate data captured through the Epic Rover app provides a rich source of information for analysis and quality improvement initiatives. The structured documentation facilitates the extraction of key metrics related to care delivery, medication administration, response times, and more. 

This data helps identify trends, areas for improvement, and measure the effectiveness of implemented changes. It transforms raw data into insights, allowing organizations to engage in continuous quality improvement cycles, leading to better patient outcomes, optimized resource allocation, and evidence-based practice adjustments.

Epic Rover Vs. Haiku: Key Differences 

Feature/Aspect	Epic Rover	Epic Haiku
Primary User	Nurses, phlebotomists, therapists, transport/EVS	Physicians, advanced practitioners
Purpose	Point-of-care clinical tasks & documentation	Mobile chart review, note writing, and messaging
Use Cases	Medication administration, barcode scanning, vitals collection, wound imaging	Reviewing patient charts, entering notes, managing schedules, and e-prescribing
Device Compatibility	iOS & Android (tablets & smartphones)	iOS & Android smartphones (optimized for phones)
Barcode Scanning	Yes	No
In-App Imaging	Wound care, specimen labeling	Mainly document scanning or images
Order Entry/Results Review	No	Yes
Secure Messaging	Not a primary use case	Yes (through Epic’s In Basket)
Documentation Support	Vitals, flowsheets, and medication records	Progress notes, templates, dictation
Clinical Decision Support	Not typical	Limited mobile CDS
Scheduling Access	No	Clinic schedule, patient lists
Best for	Hands-on, task-oriented workflows	Physician mobility, quick patient access

What Makes Epic Rover the Better Choice? 

Epic Rover is the better choice for those who want to streamline workflows, improve patient safety, and boost operational efficiency. Unlike Epic Haiku, which is made for physicians, Epic Rover is purpose-built for action. Supports nurses, phlebotomists, respiratory therapists, and support staff in completing real-time clinical tasks, such as barcode medication administration, vital signs documentation, and specimen tracking, directly at the point of care. 

Its broad usability across multidisciplinary teams, Epic integration, barcode scanning, and seamless EHR connectivity make it a critical asset for reducing errors, improving compliance, and supporting mobile-first digital transformation strategies across the enterprise.

How to Implement the Epic Rover App: A Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Configure Your Mobile Device Management (MDM) System

Before rolling out the app, you need to set up your MDM platform (like Microsoft Intune or VMware Workspace ONE) with some essential configurations:

• Set the Epic Mobile Device ID: The unique identifier helps link the device to your Epic system. Usually, you’ll use the device’s serial number.
• Enable App Name in Device ID: This helps differentiate devices if multiple apps are used.
• Add the Epic Configuration URL: The URL connects the app to your organization’s Epic environment.

Your Epic administrator will provide the exact URL and keys to enter. This step ensures that when clinicians open Rover, it’s connected to the right patient data.

Step 2: Enable Password Autofill for iOS Devices

If your users are on iPhones or iPads, enabling Password Autofill can save time and improve security:

• Integrate with Imprivata Locker or a similar credential manager.
• Disable the local keychain in Rover to allow autofill.
• Make sure users set a device PIN during app checkout. This encrypts sensitive data and keeps it secure.

This setup streamlines login while keeping patient information protected.

Step 3: Deploy the App to Your Devices

Once configured, push the Epic Rover app to your clinicians’ devices via your MDM tool. Make sure to:

• Use the correct version of the app compatible with your Epic environment.
• Distribute the app to the right user groups.
• Confirm that the app opens and connects properly using the configuration URL.

Step 4: Test and Validate the Setup

Testing is crucial before going live:

• Verify Device IDs: On the Rover login screen, check the device identifier to ensure it matches the expected format.
• Simulate Logout: Use Epic’s logout API tool to test how the app handles device check-in and check-out, ensuring data security when devices are shared.
• Troubleshoot any issues by reinstalling the app or adjusting MDM settings as needed.

Step 5: Integrate Rover into Clinical Workflows

Now that the app is ready, it’s time to put it to work:

• Use Rover for Barcode Medication Administration (BCMA) to scan meds and document administration.
• Document vital signs, blood transfusions, and lab results directly in Flowsheets.
• Capture patient images or wounds using the built-in camera feature and attach them securely to patient records.

This integration helps clinicians save time and reduce errors.

Step 6: Train Your Team and Promote Adoption

A great app is only as good as its users:

• Provide easy-to-follow guides and training sessions on common tasks like medication administration and documentation.
• Emphasize security best practices, including setting PINs and proper device check-in/check-out.
• Encourage feedback to continuously improve the user experience.

Implementation Considerations

1. Assess Technical Readiness: Confirm that your Epic system is version 2014 or later and that Rover is licensed for use.
2. Define Use Cases: Identify the departments or workflows where mobile access will have the most impact.
3. Pilot and Test: Start with a specific unit to fine-tune workflows and gather feedback.
4. Train Staff Thoroughly: Ensure all users are trained not only on the app but also on how it fits into broader clinical protocols.
5. Evaluate and Optimize: Continuously collect data and user insights to improve adoption and outcomes.

Epic Rover App Cost

The Epic Rover app itself is free to download, but its use requires integration with an Epic EHR system, which involves significant costs. Here’s a clear breakdown:

1. Core Costs

Epic EHR Licensing:

• Small clinics: $1,200+ (one-time setup)
• Large hospitals: $500,000–$1M+ (implementation + licensing)

Per-user fees:

• Clinicians: $5,000–$7,000 per license
• Support staff: $3,000–$5,000 per license

Subscription Option:

• Small clinics: ~$200/user/month
• Large hospitals: Up to $35,000+/month

2. Rover-Specific Expenses

MDM Tools:

• Microsoft Intune or Workspace ONE: $3–$10+/user/month (required for secure deployment).

Barcode Scanning:

• CortexDecoder (iOS): ~$1,000+/year (replaces physical scanners).

Epic Rover Training:

• Epic certification: $500–$10,000/user (often covered by employers).
• Staff onboarding: $2,000+/organization (varies by complexity).

3. Hidden Costs

• Device Procurement: iPhones/iPads or Android devices ($300–$1,500+/device).
• IT Support: Ongoing maintenance (15–20% of licensing fees annually).
• Customization: $10,000–$100,000+ for workflow adjustments.

Epic Rover Integration With Folio3 Digital Health 

At Folio3 Digital Health, we provide comprehensive, end-to-end Epic services as an official Epic vendor partner, helping healthcare organizations optimize performance, streamline workflows, and enhance patient care. From Epic Rover implementation to custom solutions that address operational challenges, our team of industry experts is here to guide every step of your Epic journey. We specialize in building robust, HL7 and FHIR-integrated systems that enable seamless interoperability, all while ensuring full compliance with HIPAA and GDPR standards. With Folio3, you gain a trusted partner committed to delivering secure, scalable, and future-ready health IT solutions.

Closing Note 

With our deep domain expertise, proven track record, and commitment to innovation, we help healthcare organizations harness the full power of Epic, whether it’s through Rover deployment, interoperability solutions, or regulatory compliance. Partner with us to drive meaningful digital transformation, improve care delivery, and stay ahead in a rapidly evolving healthcare system.

Frequently Asked Questions 

Which operating systems support Epic Rover?

Epic Rover is available for iOS (iPhones, iPads) and Android (phones, tablets). The organization must configure and deploy the app via a Mobile Device Management (MDM) system for secure access.

Which Epic version is required to use Epic Rover?

Organizations must be using Epic 2014 or a later version to deploy Epic Rover. Compatibility with newer Epic modules (like Hyperdrive or newer UI components) should also be verified during implementation.

Does Epic Rover support barcode scanning?

Yes. Epic Rover supports barcode scanning using the device’s camera to verify medications, patient wristbands, lab specimens, and blood products.

Is Epic Rover HIPAA compliant?

Yes. Epic Rover is designed to meet HIPAA security standards. It supports encrypted data transmission, user authentication, and audit logging. 

Can Epic Rover function offline?

No. Epic Rover requires real-time connectivity to the organization’s Epic system via Wi-Fi or secure mobile networks. It does not support offline data entry or caching, as it depends on live EHR access for data accuracy and synchronization.

Is MDM required for using Epic Rover?

Yes. Most healthcare organizations deploy Epic Rover through a Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution (e.g., Jamf, Microsoft Intune) to enforce policies, manage app updates, and ensure secure access. MDM also supports features like remote wipe and device authentication.

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