Winneshiek Medical Center is investing $1.3 million to transition to electronic health records

Winneshiek Medical Center is making a big investment in electronic health records.

WMC Director of Accounting Brandon Brevig told WMC Trustees Wednesday that the hospital has already spent $644,000 on the transition to computerized records and will likely spent another $650,000 in the next year to finish the project.

The federal government has required hospitals to switch to the electronic records, putting aside federal stimulus funds to encourage the transition.  But hospitals also face the loss of Medicare funds if they don't make the switch by 2015.

At Winneshiek Medical Center, hospital officials want to merge Decorah Clinic medical records with Winneshiek Medical Center records.  That will mean several IT system upgrades.  Brevig says his group has set an ambitious deadline of June 30th, 2012 to finish the work, so the hospital would qualify for the maximum federal financial incentives.

Brevig says the overall goal is to improve the quality of care offered at hospitals across the country.