Aspirus Keweenaw, Ontonagon, Grand View Hospitals Implement Electronic Health Records

LAURIUM, Michigan (September 23, 2014) – Aspirus Keweenaw, Ontonagon and Grand View hospitals will roll out a new, state-of-the-art Electronic Health Records (EHR) system this weekend called Epic. The use of Epic will now closely integrate the exchange of key medical information across all Aspirus hospitals and clinics in the Upper Peninsula and Northern Wisconsin.

The implementation of Epic allows Aspirus staff to chart patients electronically instead of keeping paper records, and makes for the seamless transfer of medical records between providers and health care facilities.

“The Epic system is one of the most highly regarded electronic tools available in the health care industry today,” said Dr. Steven Phillipson, Epic Physician Champion for Aspirus Keweenaw, Ontonagon and Grand View. “Health care information is much more complicated to manage than just 10 years ago. More details, specialized treatments, diagnostics and advanced technologies have resulted in a lot more data to manage. To handle personal medical information in the safest, most effective way, we are proudly bringing the gold standard in medical records management to our patients.”

The implementation of Epic will make it easier for Aspirus patients, nurses and physicians to interact and communicate with health care providers around the world. Physicians and clinical staff will be able to access complete patient records and easily order treatments based on best practices, providing the capability for a patient’s health records to “follow” them from appointment to appointment, primary care physician to specialist, emergency department to hospital.

The record will provide a seamless history of every illness, diagnosis, treatment and recovery, which will be accessible to patients through the online MyAspirus portal.

More than 90% of the Aspirus staff will have involvement with the Epic application. The installation effort has involved teams from across the U.P. and Northern Wisconsin to make the implementation successful.

“We would not have been able to put together such a powerful program without the entire support of the Aspirus system. It is going to be wonderful to have an integrated system that will help to provide a continuum of care from clinic office to outpatient, to surgery to inpatient,” said Phillipson.