The Mary Greeley Medical Center will switch from paper files to an electronic filing system beginning in July.

This new electronic filing system, known as Epic, will allow doctors and nurses to easily access a patient record more quickly and efficiently. The electronic health record will store each patient’s clinic and hospital medical history, medications and treatment records all in one place.

Staff seeing lab tests, reference notes and evaluations all at once will further help ensure the provider knows everything relevant about the patient.

“Now we can access patient information in less than two seconds. The clinical staff can see that, ‘Yes, my lab results are back, so I can go discuss these findings with the patient,'” said Amber Deardoff, R.N.

The system has been in use in the Emergency Department since last March. It was necessary in that department to have quick access to the records.

To have a seamless transition to the new record system, staff has been training for months.

The staff has assured that the new filing system will be secure. Staff will also be able to check to see who has accessed files and why.

“There is a lot of security behind this so we can make sure only the appropriate people are accessing the record,” said Kendra Gustafson, R.N., Clinical Applications Systems director.