Yuma Regional Medical Center (YRMC) in Yuma, Ariz., has rolled out a $73.3 million, five-year EMR initiative to enhance healthcare delivery throughout its service area. The facility chose Epic as its EMR provider and plans on hiring 49 full-time IT professionals to build, develop, launch and maintain the EMR.

This month, YRMC will begin a four-year plan to link the offices of interested community physicians to the hospital’s EMR system. According to the provider, the initiative will establish one EMR for each patient.

By 2012, consumers will have the ability to access related online technologies to locate physicians, schedule medical appointments, obtain testing instructions, check laboratory results, access education materials, pay their bills and contact their physicians as well as other providers, according to YRMC.

According to YRMC, the EMR initiative milestones include:

• 2010-2011: Develop the EMR for the hospital’s emergency and pharmacy departments and nursing units, and implement a health information management system to allow YRMC to participate in mandatory state and federal reporting of healthcare information and voluntarily track quality trends.
• 2011-2013: Implement and roll out EMR modules to physicians and hospital staff.
• 2012-2013: Implement computerized ordering of medical procedures and electronic charting for physicians as well as prepare the cardiology and radiology departments for the EMR launch.
• 2013-2014: Prepare the surgery department for the EMR implementation.