The University Board of Visitors approved a $59 million project last week to implement an integrated patient information system for the University Health System that will consolidate out-patient, in-patient and emergency patient electronic health records into one database.
Barbara Baldwin, Health System chief information officer, said a single, consolidated record will improve the efficiency of care providers looking at the records, noting that “this will pull it all together for them.”
The Medical Center and Health Services Foundation will fund the information system replacement process, which will take place in two years, Baldwin said. The delay in activation is the result of administrators taking every measure necessary to ensure that the transition will be a smooth one, she said.
“As you can imagine, it’s a very complex project, and we want to make sure it is well-designed and well-tested on behalf of our patients and care providers,” Baldwin said.
Pediatrics Prof. Stephen Borowitz said the new system will cater to patient needs and allow health care providers to better serve them.
“The holy grail is to have [a] single unified information system that’s patient-centric,” Borowitz said. “The idea is that [the system is] for the patient and not for the provider. If someone collected information that I might need, I shouldn’t have to collect it again.”
Borowitz explained that patient records become fragmented when patients inevitably change health providers, such as the switch from a pediatrician to a family practitioner.
“[The] implicit assumption of health care on paper is that people get their health care from one provider all the time,” he said. “But that doesn’t happen and so an integrated information system allows the information to flow to whoever is providing care. It can be at many places at once.”
Concerns about privacy might be assuaged by the fact that health care professionals are sworn to confidentiality, Borowitz said. A more concrete way of addressing potential privacy concerns also has been built into the system, he said, as the system features the ability to track when and where information is released.
“One of the powers of information system is while multiple people can look at your information simultaneously, the system will know who sees it,” Borowitz said. “There’s no way to track who’s looked at your [paper] chart.”
On the other hand, any switch making information more accessible raises the possibility — however small — of too much information being released and to the wrong person, he said. Baldwin said he remains optimistic about the new program, however, adding that the potential benefits are numerous and that the change will help the Health System achieve its overall mission of quality patient care.
“It will be a lot of work; there will be many doctors, nurses and allied health professionals involved, but it will be a very positive move forward,” he said.
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