The University of Virginia Health System is expected to sign a multimillion-dollar contract within the next month to buy soft-ware that will allow for uniform, system-wide access to electronic medical records.
The system will likely become integrated with a to-be-established national system, officials said.
Spending for the system — expected to cost $59 million — was approved Friday during a meeting of the university’s Board of Visitors.
“You have all of this information electronically, immediately, at your disposal,” said Edward Howell, vice president and CEO of the UVa Medical Center.
Now, a variety of software systems handle the electronic records for different departments at the hospital and its satellite clinics and specialty outpatient care facilities. The new unified system will replace all the current ones.
Leonard W. Sandridge, executive vice president and chief operating officer at UVa, said the system is expected to be online by the end of 2010.
Howell acknowledged there is a chance that federal economic stimulus money could cover some of the cost of implementing the new system, but that the health system is not counting on that possibility.
President Barack Obama has said establishing a nationwide system making all medical records available electronically is one of his administration’s priorities.
With the new system, UVa would likely have the ability to connect to a national platform that would allow the university’s records to be accessed by doctors using dissimilar software systems, Howell said.
Ed Meyers is a registered nurse with UVa’s emergency medical department, which switched to entering all medical information electronically in October.
Meyers said his department’s old system required, in some cases, scanning or transcribing handwritten documents into the system. The new system allows for typing the medical information in directly.
“You take away that handwriting issue,” Meyers said of the new system. “There’s no guessing as to what it might be.”
A study printed in January in the Archives of Internal Medicine examined dozens of hospitals in Texas and found those keeping electronic medical records reported lower mortality rates, fewer complications administering care and lower costs.
“With the new system the patient will have access to their medical records anywhere on Earth ... with an ID, password and an Internet connection,” said Dr. Marshall Ruffin, the health system’s chief technology and health information officer.
Ruffin said UVa’s new system will also allow patients to see their records online and fill out paperwork they would normally complete inperson at their doctor’s office.
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