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Epic Environments
Epic is not one system. It is a set of copies, called environments, each with a job. Most look identical once you are logged in, which is exactly why the label on the desktop icon matters. This page tells you which ones you will actually use, what the rest are for, and how a change travels from an idea to the live chart.
The environments you will use
Every Freeman provider works in PRD. For training you also touch CRE or DEMO. A smaller group opens POC and TST for specific jobs. You may not see a separate desktop icon for each; the Epic Hyperspace icon opens a menu of the environments you have been granted.
Reading the desktop icon
Most providers have one Epic icon on the desktop: Epic Hyperspace, in either the red or the white style shown here. It opens a menu that lists every environment you have access to. Pick PRD for patient care. If you have been granted CRE, DEMO, POC, or TST, they may appear in the same list.
Personalize your settings in PRD during User Settings Lab. Settings made in PRD persist through go-live and stabilization; settings made anywhere else stay behind.
The environment name also shows in the Hyperspace title bar. If you are documenting on a real patient and it does not say PRD, stop and switch.
Haiku and Canto point only at PRD. The QR codes on the Haiku and Secure Chat Setup page are PRD codes, not training codes.
How a change reaches the live chart
This is why a fix you asked for does not appear the same afternoon. Every change, from a new order set to a SmartPhrase in a shared template, follows the same path so it can be reviewed and tested before it touches real patients.
Analysts build in POC and move it forward with Data Courier. Nothing is built directly in PRD. PRD is copied to SUP every night and to RPT and DR continuously, so those three always look like the live chart.
If you are reviewing an order set in Round Table, you are looking at POC. The version in PRD will not change until the build has passed through TST. The OPA & Order Set Requests page walks through the request side of that process.
Epic-led training strategy
Epic offers two training models. Under the customer-led model an organization builds and maintains a full set of classroom environments. Freeman chose the Epic-led model: pre-course work runs on training.epic.com/EUT, and all Freeman training happens in two Freeman environments, CRE and DEMO, that carry Freeman's own build.
Your pre-course assignments run in Epic's own online training environment. Everything after that, including your class, happens in Freeman environments with Freeman's build.
Training and hands-on practice happen here, in Freeman's own build with training patients. CRE is also where department reviewers check order sets and note templates before go-live.
Created from TST about four months before go-live. October 24 is the first day real Freeman patients are charted here.Real Freeman patients have been charted here since October 24, 2026.
Freeman does not have a Playground (PLY) environment. Practice after class happens in CRE or DEMO when a session is scheduled, and in PRD with test patients only when your trainer or the Command Center tells you to.
Every environment, decoded
The full list from Epic's standard environment strategy, grouped the way Epic groups them. You will hear these abbreviations from analysts and in Round Table comments; you will not need to log in to most of them.
Production and production support
| ICON LABEL | NAME | WHAT IT IS | WILL YOU SEE IT? |
|---|---|---|---|
| PRD | Production | The live chart. Real Freeman patients, real orders, real notes. The only place clinical work counts. | Yes |
| DR | Disaster Recovery | Near real-time read and write mirror of PRD used only during a disaster recovery event. IT will tell you if you ever need it. | No |
| RPT | Reporting | Near real-time copy of PRD that feeds reports and Read-Only Hyperspace. Reports run here so they do not slow PRD down. | No |
| SUP | Support | Nightly copy of PRD used to reproduce and troubleshoot problems without touching the live chart. Also used for pre-live login testing. | No |
Readiness (Epic-led training)
| ICON LABEL | NAME | WHAT IT IS | WILL YOU SEE IT? |
|---|---|---|---|
| DEMO | Demonstration | Freeman build with training patients, used for demos and hands-on practice before go-live under the Epic-led training model. | Yes |
| CRE | Content Review | Freeman build used by department reviewers to check order sets, note templates, and other content before it goes live. | Some providers |
Non-production
| ICON LABEL | NAME | WHAT IT IS | WILL YOU SEE IT? |
|---|---|---|---|
| POC | Proof of Concept | Where analysts build and where Round Table review of order sets and OPAs happens. Every change starts here. | Some providers |
| TST | Test | Unit, integrated, and interface testing. Providers helping test EPCS, Dragon, or other integrations log in here. | Some providers |
| TSTRPT | Test Reporting | Reporting mirror of TST, used to test reports. | No |
| OLDTST | Production-Version Validation | Optional copy of TST kept on the current production version during an upgrade, so fixes can still be tested for PRD. | No |
| REL | Release | Full-size copy of PRD used for upgrade rehearsal and legacy data conversion testing. | No |
| MPE | Multipurpose | Small environment for projects such as duplicate patient cleanup and third-party content upgrades. | No |
| PJX | Projects | Production-sized environment for large projects, mainly legacy data conversions. | No |
Where real patient data lives
Protected health information is limited to PRD, DR, RPT, SUP, REL, PJX, and MPE. Everything else holds test or training patients. Two habits follow from that: never enter a real patient's information into a test or training environment, and treat anything you see in SUP or REL as real, because it is a copy of the live chart.
Source: Epic Environment Strategy Guide, last updated December 19, 2025, adapted for Freeman Medical Staff.
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