A growing number of health systems are starting to charge patients for asking for their physicians' advice through online patient portals, such as MyChart. Here are some hospitals and health systems partaking in the trend:

ONC has formed a pharmacy IT task force that includes executives from health systems and EHR executives.

Michigan Medicine, based in Ann Arbor, is strengthening its penalty for privacy violations regarding EHRs and patient portals, stating that inappropriate use or access to these systems will result in termination.

Seattle-based UW Medicine plans to start charging for MyChart messages June 27, KIRO reported.

The most recent Cerner layoffs could be attributed to the trouble the company has had in rolling out a new EHR system for the Department of Veterans Affairs, The Register reported June 16. 

According to people familiar with the matter, Oracle is planning to lay off hundreds in its Cerner unit, as well as rescind job offers and cut back open positions, Reuters reported June 15. 

Jasper, Ind.-based Memorial Hospital and Health Care added a direct scheduling tool to MyChart.

A limited number of physicians at UC San Diego Health now have the option to draft responses to patient messages using ChatGPT.

Hospitals and health systems have been working to alleviate administrative burdens, including EHR documentation, for their clinicians to give them more time back at the bedside with patients and to help reduce their "pajama time" — time spent on answering patient messages outside of work hours. 

Medical record technology has evolved from the filing cabinet to artificial intelligence, and the next 25 years should see significant advancements in EHR technology.

HealthPartners, based in Bloomington, Minn., has been simplifying its electronic health records system as part of its efforts to retain employees, the Star Tribune reported June 13. 

AMN Healthcare Language Services, a remote language interpretation company specializing in healthcare, integrated with Epic.

Since its acquisition of Cerner, the combined Oracle Cerner entity has been a major player in the EHR market.

EHR vendor Cerner, which was acquired by Oracle on June 8, 2022, has contributed $1.5 billion in total revenue for the tech company. 

St. Peter's Health, based in Helena, Mont., spent $25 million to switch to an Epic EHR system. 

Hospitals and health systems are most pleased with Epic's Beacon for their medical oncology EHR, KLAS Research reported.

"AI as a co-pilot will be the next phase of the electronic health record," Eric Alper, MD, chief clinical informatics officer of Worcester, Mass.-based UMass Memorial Health, told Worcester Business Journal. 

Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic is using Google Cloud's generative artificial intelligence application that uses an AI-based chatbot to receive questions, pull information from internal web pages and documents and summarize information from EHRs to form questions, Post Bulletin reported June 12. 

Here are four health systems that have implemented or announced plans to implement new EHR systems since May. 17. 

Columbus (Neb.) Community Hospital is expanding its partnership with digital health company Altera Digital Health to use the Paragon EHR for seven more years.