For the record

Physician, heal thyself is a common saying with Judeo-Christian roots often used in regards to the medical community. For Memorial Hospital of Carbon County (MHCC), it could also apply to their newly updated electronic health record which went live at midnight on September 18.

“About a year ago, the Board of Memorial Hospital of Carbon County looked at where we were with our computer systems, or what we call our electronic health record. We, for a number of years, have had multiple systems which, independently, were all good systems but it created some challenges,” said CEO Ken Harman.

The independent systems, said Harman, meant there were separate records and billing for the organization’s clinics, emergency room and inpatient/outpatient services. For patient billing, this caused an issue. They would receive separate bills, depending on what services they would use, but not a complete bill of services from MHCC.

“Now, we’ve gone to one electronic record for the entire organization,” said Harman. “So, it’s going to help with our billing process so that people get one bill and when they come in and pay, it’s attributed to that account.”

Harman said the new system will also allow providers and staff to give better care because they will have access to a patient’s full record.

After making the decision to update MHCC’s electronic health record, the Board of Trustees began looking for a vendor to implement a new system. It found that vendor in Cerner. Cerner built the electronic health records for the Department of Veteran Affairs, the Department of Defense, Wyoming Medical Center in Casper and Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County in Rock Springs.

According to Harman, switching from two systems to one was no easy task.

“Growing up, I was always accustomed to computer programs. You go down and buy it, you put it in and you load it. That’s not the case with electronic health records,” said Harman. “There’s a tremendous amount of work that goes in to make sure that the flows and processes are best practice.”

After months of work building the system and training the MHCC staff, the system was brought online at midnight on September 18. Harman said this was the best time to activate the new system because it’s the slower time for the hospital.

Though a majority of patient data has been migrated to the new Cerner system, not all have been migrated. Harman said the two older systems will still be kept active for the immediate future. While this will cause some increased expenditures for the time being, Harman said the new electronic health record will be a financial benefit to MHCC in six months.

The new electronic health record also provides a patient portal, Cerner HealtheLife, which will allow patients to manage appointments, request prescription refills, view laboratory results or speak with their providers.