Toccoa, Ga.-based Stephens County Hospital CEO Van Loskoski said he is looking into getting a new EMR system and vendor as the hospital looks to have a unified system, WNEG News reported Sept. 11.
"Right now our hospital is in one system, and our clinics are in another system," Mr. Loskoski told the publication. "And we're looking at opportunities to combine those into one single system."
But Mr. Loskoski said the issue is that the system its clinics use is only intended for clinics, and the one its hospital operates on is only intended for hospitals.
"It's a big decision to be made, and a lot of work goes into it," he said.
Although the cost of implementing and migrating to a new system would be significant, Mr. Loskoski said efficiency would help offset that.
"There is definitely an initial investment, but ultimately being in one unified system, we see a lot of opportunity for improvement in our workflow," he said. "We're probably spending more money on personnel and manual things that could be automated."
The health system has been speaking with a number of vendors, but said it is "focusing on one popular provider." The CEO did not name that vendor.