Epic Go-Live Readiness Checklist: 30 Points
Thirty critical tasks to validate before an Epic go-live, built from real go-live failures rather than vendor documentation.
What this covers
Most Epic go-lives do not fail because the software does not work. They fail because the organization was not operationally ready: training was incomplete, interfaces were untested, or the command center was understaffed on the morning it mattered. This checklist is the pre-go-live validation APSIS runs on every Epic implementation, organized into seven phases and marked by severity so a readiness review can triage rather than read end to end.
Key figures
What is inside
- Phase 1 · Project governance and scope control
- Confirms decision rights, change control and scope freeze are actually in force before cutover, not merely documented.
- Phase 2 · Build completion and module licensing
- Validates that every licensed module is built, and that nothing in the build depends on a license the organization has not purchased.
- Phase 3 · Integrated testing
- Carries a T-30 critical gate. Integrated testing is where interface defects surface; finding them after cutover converts them into clinical incidents.
- Phase 4 · Data migration and cutover integrity
- Verifies migrated data reconciles against source, and that the cutover sequence has a tested rollback.
- Phase 5 · Training completion
- Includes a trainer capacity check. Training is the most common source of post-live workarounds and rapid-cycle build changes during hypercare.
- Phase 6 · Go-live command center and staffing
- Covers command center structure and at-the-elbow coverage ratios, the two staffing decisions that determine the first week.
- Phase 7 · Reporting and Clarity readiness
- Confirms operational reports run inside their window before go-live, so leadership is not blind in the first days after cutover.
The point most teams miss
Readiness is an operational question, not a technical one. Organizations that staff the command center and finish training pay for it before go-live; the ones that do not pay for it in the weeks after.
Common questions
When should this checklist be run?
Items are keyed to milestones running up to and including 30 days out. An unresolved CRITICAL item at T-30 is not a yellow flag, it is a red one, and the checklist is designed to be run repeatedly at each readiness review rather than once.
What makes a go-live command center adequately staffed?
A command center is not a room with computers, it is a decision-making structure. The checklist requires named leads for Clinical, Technical (Epic), Interfaces, Help Desk and Executive Escalation, each with the authority and expertise to resolve issues in real time.
Why does clinical workflow validation matter so much before cutover?
KLAS research consistently finds that IT-driven implementations without clinical workflow validation generate 3 to 5 times higher post-live help desk volumes than clinically co-designed builds. Workflows that were never reviewed against real practice are a known source of post-live workarounds and rapid-cycle build changes during hypercare.
Get the full document
This page summarizes the guide. The full 8-page PDF includes the complete tables, checklists and worked detail.