Ilwaco, Wash.-based Ocean Beach Hospital & Medical Clinics deployed a systemwide Epic EHR and MyChart patient portal Oct. 21, the Chinook Observer reports.
Ocean Beach went live on a customized version of the Epic EHR used by Renton, Wash.-based Providence Health & Services. Providence offers its version of Epic to support small healthcare facilities through its "Community Connect" division.
Ocean Beach officials hope the Epic EHR, which cost the facility about $2.2 million, will facilitate information sharing between patients who visit its hospital and clinics. Providers at Ocean Beach and Providence will also have access to the same patient records through the system.
Larry Cohen, CEO of Ocean Beach, told the Chinook Observer hospital staff will eventually merge patient records from the former EHR into the Epic system.
"The old systems are still alive and well in the background. They provide historical information," he said. "We are actually working on archiving them into a whole new database that will merge that information together."
Mr. Cohen expects the archive database to be completed in 2018.