SYRACUSE — Two Syracuse hospitals have launched electronic medical-records (EMR) systems and a third has plans to implement a system in 2015.

Upstate University Hospital and St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center partnered with Verona, Wis.–based Epic Systems as their EMR and practice-management application vendor. 

Upstate University Hospital’s Downtown  (Syracuse) Campus on March 1 became the first hospital in Central New York to fully implement a secured, electronic medical records (EMR) system, the hospital said in a news release. 

Upstate on May 3 then launched the same set of applications at the Community campus, says Terry Wagner, chief information officer at Upstate University Hospital.  

St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center on May 5 announced it launched SJLinked, an electronic health-record (EHR) system across its entire system, including the hospital, clinics, and the primary-care offices of St. Joseph’s Physicians.

Crouse Hospital is planning to implement the Soarian electronic medical-record system from Siemens. The work will begin this summer and conclude in 2015, the hospital said.

The federal government will penalize hospitals with a reduction in Medicare payments if they do not have technology in place for certified electronic health records by 2015, according to Upstate.

Upstate implements
Epic has a number of different modules. It’s all one system, but there are many different subspecialty areas that Epic supports, says Wagner.  

“We had been using the system in all of our outpatient-clinic areas, so basically the doctor offices … and in our emergency department downtown since 2012,” Wagner says. 

She spoke with The Business Journal News Network on June 9.

Upstate implemented the acute-care and billing applications for hospital purposes in the March 1 launch, she adds.

It included all of Upstate’s inpatient operations, pharmacy, and operating room, Wagner says.

“Many, many different applications that we hadn’t been managing under Epic before that,” she says.

Epic is a secure, paperless, digital and computerized-software system that integrates and maintains a patient’s medical profile. That medical history includes medications, illnesses, records of doctor’s office or emergency-room visits, and insurance information. 

The patient, along with their health-care providers, can access their medical records online from any location to review the individual’s medical profile.

So far, half of the U.S. population has a record in an Epic system, according to Upstate. 

Administrative functions such as scheduling, admitting, and patient billing are also handled on Epic. 

Patients at Upstate’s Downtown Campus can access their records and create a free account with Upstate MyChart through Epic, says Wagner.

Upstate outpatients have had access to MyChart since 2012, she adds. 

The secure, password-protected account is accessible “exclusively” to the patient at any time, the hospital said. 

The information in MyChart is encrypted and is not intended for urgent medical issues or to resolve health-related issues. 

A patient should contact their provider directly with those concerns, Upstate added. 

SJLinked
SJLinked enables St. Joseph’s doctors and nurses to share test results, medication lists, physician notes, and other information across hospital units, ambulatory services, and in-transitions between care settings.

St. Joseph’s has used electronic records since 1999, but the system-wide EHR means all providers are on the “same screen, ensuring consistency and improving coordination of care,” the hospital said in a May 5 news release.

“The change to a single electronic-health record is an investment in our future, enhancing our ability to deliver patient-centered care that is seamless from the community physician’s office to the hospital,” Kathryn Ruscitto, president and CEO of St. Joseph’s, said.

At the same time, the hospital also launched My St. Joseph’s, which it describes as a “secure, online patient portal.”  

It allows St. Joseph’s patients to access portions of their medical record, including their current medications, test results, immunizations, and allergies. They can also manage upcoming and past appointments through a computer connected to the Internet or a smartphone.

St. Joseph’s also collaborated with Epic Systems to design SJLinked. Nearly 200 employees from various units worked with Epic for about 18 months to build and test the customized EHR platform, St. Joseph’s said.

A total of 50 certified trainers at the St. Joseph’s training center led more than 4,500 clinical staff through courses in preparation to use the system. 

Epic Systems services 297 customers, with 19 live or installing in New York, St. Joseph’s said. 

SJLinked will be interoperable with HealtheConnections, Central New York’s regional health-information organization, which shares electronic health-care information with participating health-care providers in the community.       

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com