The Dr. John Warner Hospital will soon be making a decision on the future of their medical records.
The City of Clinton owned hospital has to transition from paper medical records to electronic medical records. A decision of what firm to make that transition will be made this month and CEO of the DJWH, Earl Sheehy says this decision is going to be based on money, but the biggest factor will be implementation time.
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The hospital is looking at a total cost of the transfer of around $1-million. Sheehy explains about a fifth of the cost is going towards infrastructure improvements. The entire hospital will have to install wireless internet access. Sheehy notes this is going to be cheaper than hardwiring all the computers together.
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The hospital eventually has to go to electronic medical records by late in the year in 2014. Sheehy explains doing this now will have a couple incentives for the hospital, mainly by receiving money back for depreciation of the system.
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Sheehy says the goal is to have meaningful use of electronic medical records by October of 2014. The deadline for full implementation of electronic medical records is October of 2015. Sheehy says they should have no problems meeting the latter deadline.
The Dr. John Warner Hospital Board of Directors is currently considering four firms to bring in for this process. Sheehy says they will make their decision at their January Board Meeting.
