NC hospital, medical practices begin shift to IT

Novant Health Inc. and Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center said that despite the influx of $19 billion in health IT stimulus funds, they already have been converting their paper records to electronic medical records. Meanwhile, Talon for Healthcare, a software company in Winston-Salem, N.C., says it will benefit from the stimulus funding once the definition of an EMR is more clearly defined under the federal plan.

Dr. A.J. Patefield, the chief medical information officer for Novant Health, said, "The rollout of our ambulatory electronic medical record system continues to be a multi-year task across our Novant Medical Group practices," and will cost tens of millions of dollars to institute and maintain.

The incentive for transitioning to EMRs, according to John McConnell, CEO of Wake Forest Baptist, is to help the system's ability to do more research, which could also raise the profile of IT nationally--an important goal within the health-care system.

To learn more about the effects of health IT stimulus funds on North Carolina, check out this Winston-Salem Journal article.

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