St. Joseph’s launches new electronic health-record system

SYRACUSE — St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center has launched SJLinked, an electronic health-record (EHR) system across its entire system, including the hospital, clinics, and the primary-care offices of St. Joseph’s Physicians.

St. Joseph’s has used electronic records since 1999, but the system-wide EHR means all providers are on the “same screen, ensuring consistency and improving coordination of care,” the hospital said in a news release.

SJLinked enables St. Joseph’s doctors and nurses to share test results, medication lists, physician notes, and other information across hospital units, ambulatory services, and in-transitions between care settings.

 “The change to a single electronic health record is an investment in our future, enhancing our ability to deliver patient-centered care that is seamless from the community physician’s office to the hospital,” Kathryn Ruscitto, president and CEO of St. Joseph’s, said in the news release.

At the same time, the hospital also launched My St. Joseph’s, which it describes as a “secure, online patient portal.” 

It allows St. Joseph’s patients to access portions of their medical record, including their current medications, test results, immunizations and allergies. They can also manage upcoming and past appointments through a computer connected to the Internet or a smartphone.

St. Joseph’s collaborated with Verona, Wisc.–based Epic Systems to design SJLinked. Nearly 200 employees from various units worked with Epic for the past 18 months to build and test the customized EHR platform, St. Joseph’s said.

A total of 50 certified trainers at the St. Joseph’s training center led more than 4,500 clinical staff through courses in preparation to use the system.

Epic Systems services 297 customers, with 19 live or installing in New York, St. Joseph’s said.

SJLinked will be interoperable with HealtheConnections, Central New York’s regional health-information organization, which shares electronic health-care information with participating health-care providers in the community.

St. Joseph’s isn’t the only hospital in Syracuse that’s incorporating the use of electronic medical records.

Upstate University Hospital completed the changeover at the downtown campus on March 1 and at the Community campus this past weekend, the hospital said in an email message to the Business Journal News Network.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com