WVU Medicine gave the Marion County Health Department access to its Epic EHR system with the goal of improving care coordination, WVNews reported Feb. 20.
Marion County Health Department is the first public health organization in the state to adopt Epic's EHR system. The implementation is set to merge medical records that exist across multiple platforms to improve data exchange between WVU Medicine and the health department.
For example, when a patient visits the health department, it will be automatically entered into that patient's online record. That record is then synced with WVU Medicine's MyChart system, allowing patients to have their medical history listed in one place.
"When smaller organizations join the Epic system through the Community Connect Program, they are able to enter into a system that already has an expansive network, all at the fraction of the cost for what it would take for that organization to join Epic or a similar EMR on their own," Ilo Romero, WVU Medicine's vice president of IT, said in the report.