HOT SPRINGS — The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences will spend $87 million to convert to a new computer system that will allow for the easier creation and sharing of electronic patient records.
Adopting the system by the Wisconsin-based Epic Systems Corp. will allow the UAMS Medical Center to qualify for federal reimbursements tied to electronic health records requirements and avoid penalties for noncompliance, UAMS Chancellor Dr. Dan Rahn told the University of Arkansas board of trustees Thursday.
For patients, the new system will mean greater ease in sharing medical histories with new doctors, even many doctors who work at other hospitals, and fewer forms to fill out, he said.
“We have to invest in our future,” Rahn said. “We really can’t proceed without this.”
The $87 million cost will cover the software, training, materials and installation associated with the project, he said.
UA trustees, meeting in Hot Springs, approved UAMS’ plans to buy the system using money from its reserves and a $60 million, seven-year loan it intends to repay using savings it expects to gain by using the more efficient patient-records system.
Patient medical records are currently housed and created using several different computer systems, making sharing and accessing them inefficient and cumbersome, said UAMS Chief Information Officer David Miller.
The hospital expects to save about $10 million annually by “reducing waste and clinical inefficiencies” and about $2 million annually on software-maintenance expense, he said.
That savings will also come through reducing the need for records staff and paper, Miller said.
Rahn said the system will help prevent unnecessary or duplicative services for patients by providing physicians access to more detailed treatment histories, and that it will allow the hospital to better monitor how its resources are being used by monitoring all services through one, consistent format.
“We know we have the opportunity for greater efficiency and waste reduction, and we know that an integrated real-time data system can help us address that,” he said.
Under new federal guidelines, the hospital’s Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements could be reduced if it doesn’t fully implement new electronic health records systems by 2016, Rahn said.
Those guidelines define an electronic health record as a single record of patient demographic and health data generated through multiple appointments through multiple providers.
The hospital could make such a transition under its current software system, but it would take about $24 million to $30 million to make necessary upgrades first, Rahn said.
In addition, doctors may qualify for incentives from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for using the health records, he said.
Rahn said he has encouraged other health providers in central Arkansas to use the Epic software model, already in use in some other Arkansas hospitals, to allow for easier sharing of files.
After questioning the cost of the project, trustees said it seemed like a necessary expense.
“No one wants to expend this kind of money, but sometimes you just have to bite the bullet,” trustee John Goodson of Texarkana said.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 05/25/2012