1-25-12 Electronic medical records to replace paper

Posted by sallie Latest Headlines Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

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AUGUSTA – The Hampshire County Board of Health voted to implement an electronic record-keeping system at its Jan. 5 board meeting.

The goal of HEALTHeWV is to build a secure, electronic health information exchange of patient data among physicians, hospitals, diagnostic laboratories and other care providers.

“This is the wave of the future. We are hoping all health care providers go electronic,” said Carol Lindsey, administrator for the Hampshire County Health Department.

Lindsey said the network that West Virginia is implementing for integrating healthcare providers and patient medical records is West Virginia Health Information Network.

A 17-member state board governs the network. All staff have backgrounds in health or information technology. Thomas Reuter Healthcare has been selected as the program’s prime contractor and CareEvolution is providing the system design.

Lindsey said an assessment was done on the county health department system to make sure it was capable of implementing the program.

“We met the requirements. We do need to get faster Internet speed,” said Lindsey.

The health department gives immunizations, does family planning programs, and screenings of breast and cervical cancer.

All electronic information will be integrated with other providers and is designed to put the patient at the center of care.

Currently there is no cost for this program. It is supported by the National Technology Transfer Center at Wheeling Jesuit University. The software’s deployment, application hosting, implementation, training and technical support are funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The system is expected to be up and running before the end of June 2012.

“We anticipate seeing improvement in care to patients through the use of electronic medical records. We are excited to bring this technology to the health dep

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