PORT ANGELES — It won’t come cheap, but Olympic Medical Center will launch a single-database electronic medical record system by July to qualify for
$7 million in federal incentives while aiming to improve patient care.
Hospital commissioners Wednesday voted 7-0 to approve a $7.6 million agreement with Providence Health and Services to provide Epic electronic records for the Port Angeles hospital and its satellite clinics.
Software implementation will account for a maximum of $6 million, with another $1.6 million for licensing, interfaces, conversions and data storage.
Annual support fees will begin next year at $730,248 and rise incrementally to $780,317 by 2017.
The yearly fees are “about the same” as the support costs for the five computer systems and various interfaces that OMC is using now, Chief Financial Officer Julie Rukstad said.
If OMC achieves a “meaningful use” of a certified electronic medical record system by July 1, it will be eligible for $7.2 million from Medicare over four years.
Hospital officials said electronic medical records will improve patient convenience, patient care and patient participation while improving the accuracy of diagnoses and coordination between providers.
With 20 of 25 hospitals between Everett and Centralia using Epic or planning to switch, a surgeon in Seattle will have access to an OMC patient’s primary-care charts with the click of a mouse.
“If OMC is to survive in the coming five to 10 years, we’re going to have to reduce waste and improve efficiencies while providing more services locally,” OMC Chief Executive Officer Eric Lewis said.
“And I think Epic, with our connection with Swedish, gives us the best chance to more forward in that area.”
Digital medical records were a major impetus behind OMC affiliating with Swedish Medical Center last October.
Swedish joined forces with Providence, another Seattle-based health care giant, that same month.
The 10-year agreement that OMC’s elected governing board approved “will put us on the same Epic version that Swedish will be on and the rest of the Providence system,” Lewis said.
Jefferson Healthcare is considering a similar agreement for Epic digital records.
The cost of not going to digital medical records would be considerable.
“By 2015, if we haven’t achieved [meaningful use], they get the stick out and start cutting Medicare reimbursement,” Lewis said.
Medicare would cut reimbursement by 1 percent in 2015, 2 percent in 2016 and 3 percent in 2017 if OMC did nothing.
The journey toward electronic health records began more than two years ago when commissioners and administrators of OMC, Jefferson Healthcare and Forks Community Hospital discussed a potential affiliation with a larger hospital to expand services and save money at a regional conference in Chelan.
Jefferson Healthcare and Forks Community Hospital affiliated with Swedish shortly after OMC did.
OMC staff has been working on the Epic agreement for several months. The costs were discussed in a board meeting last month.
“We’ve been talking about it for so long, it’s just exciting to at least put a pen to the paper,” Commissioner Jean Hordyk said.
Lewis said OMC would not have been able to afford electronic medical records had it not affiliated with Swedish.
“Other stand-alone hospitals have paid quite a bit of money, tens of millions more than we’re paying,” Lewis said.
“So I think the price is fair, and there’s certainly not a profit motive for Providence in this.”
Another advantage of Epic, which is considered to be a leader in the field, is a community connect program that will allow OMC to offer digital medical records to its independent medical staff, Lewis said.
OMC is using five separate computer systems for health records in the hospital, the emergency room and various clinics in Port Angeles and Sequim.
“They’re connected through a bunch of interfaces, but it’s really clumsy and not efficient,” Lewis said.
“I think our current systems really don’t help us take care of our patients the way they should. I think Epic is the best system available.”
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
