Greene County Medical Center recently underwent a switch over to a new electronic medical records system with EPIC at the end of last month.

Community Relations Director Carla Offenburger says all patient records from the hospital’s previous Paragon system were successfully transferred and from this point on, any new patient care at the medical center will go directly to EPIC.

Offenburger points out that the medical center has been working on the new system and training its staff since the Board of Trustees made the decision to make the switch last June.

On top of the 10,000 hours of training, Chief Financial Officer Mark VanderLinden says the new program will cost $2 million, of which, 91% will be reimbursed.

Chief Executive Officer Carl Behne points out some challenges they may face in the coming weeks with EPIC.

“We do anticipate registration and some other processes taking a little bit longer, but hopefully it’s not to the point where it’s frustrating for our patients and our consumers.  We feel like we’re going to be able to manage that eventually be able to be more efficient in the long run.”

Possible reasons why registration may take longer is because of required verification with EPIC for all patient information including a photo identification card and an insurance card.

Another feature, adds Offenburger, is the MyUnityPoint roll-out program that will eventually happen in the next few weeks.  She says this part of the EPIC system will allow patients the ability to view their own medical center records online.

While all patient care areas of the medical center made the switch to EPIC in the past week, it won’t be until fall of 2014 that the Advanced Women’s Care and West Central Orthopedics clinics will be using the ambulatory portion of the system.