MORGANTOWN -- Merlin, the electronic health record system that has been in preparation for several years at West Virginia University Hospitals and the associated private practitioners' University Health Associates, is set to "go live" March 1.

Why "Merlin" -- a name chosen through a contest at WVU?

"Because the transformation of the way we're going to do our health care is going to be rather magical," said Claudia Wilhelm, director of clinical operations and one of five members of an Epic Leadership Team.

A campus-wide effort has gone into the development and launch of the Internet-based records system from Epic Systems Corp. of Wisconsin.

"We've engaged the input of providers and staff from throughout the health enterprise to look at the way we currently do our business and to improve the way we'll do our business in the future," she said.

"We've asked for their input; that continues as we speak, and it's going to continue long into the future."

The changeover is part of a larger national effort.

President George W. Bush called in 2004 for most Americans to have access to interoperable electronic health records by 2014.

Yet WVU Hospitals' implementation is near the forefront: Only 13 percent of hospitals nationwide use electronic health records so far, according to a report released this month by the California HealthCare Foundation.

"That doesn't surprise me," said Ann Chinnis, who heads up the Epic Leadership Team. "There's a fairly substantive cost associated with purchasing and implementing an electronic health record, as you can see from our $90 million price tag. It requires a lot of financial discipline."

That $90 million covers the first seven years, she said: all expenses including licensing, customization, hardware, records conversion and staff training.

In West Virginia, CAMC Health System and Cabell Huntington Hospital are at some stage of developing electronic health records, according to Health Care Authority Board Chairwoman Sonia Chambers, as are several practice groups.

"I certainly applaud WVU for adopting an electronic health record," Chambers said. "I think it does very much help improve patient care."

Better Care and Communication

The new campus-wide system will replace a number of separate systems at WVU Hospitals and at clinics across the state where UHA physicians from WVU's schools of medicine and dentistry practice.

One result of that is simple convenience. Patients only will have to complete a full registration once for all sites, according to Wilhelm. Scheduling also will be streamlined.

But Merlin's advantages go far deeper.

It will allow multiple providers to access complete, up-to-date records on the same patient simultaneously, Wilhelm said. It automatically provides alerts related to patient safety -- for example, for dangerous interactions among prescribed drugs. Communication back to referring physicians and among providers internally will be improved.

And if patients are seen at another facility anywhere in the country that uses Epic, all of the records will be accessible together.

The system also will interface with the West Virginia Health Information Network, the protocol that eventually will allow facilities across the state to share electronic health records, according to Chambers.

Records Conversion

"We are converting about 10 years of stuff from Med Site, our current patient repository," Chinnis explained.

Scheduling, registration and billing records are in conversion now.

"It's already in electronic format, so the new system is just basically sucking it out of the old system and converting it into Merlin via an automated process," Chinnis said.

A relatively small amount of information will have to be keyed in manually.

Testing teams are looking at everything that comes across a conversion interface, she said, to make sure the information ends up correct and where it belongs.

Clinical records will be converted in the fall.

Going Live

The long planning period already is beginning to pay off as users from across the system are trained.

"For the most part, people are surprised at how easy it is," said Pamela Armstrong, a registered nurse and principal trainer for the emergency department module.

"It's very intuitive," Wilhelm said. "It's been a challenge, but it's also exciting because we're now seeing how it's going to work to our advantage."

The March 1 "go live" date implements an Epic first wave that applies to scheduling, registration, medical records and billing for clinics that employ UHA physicians across the state and also to parts of the hospital emergency department and radiology services in Morgantown.

Easing the transition is the fact that March 1 is a Saturday.

"The full brunt of it will be Monday, March 3," Wilhelm said. "We'll have a command center in place that will be fully staffed, in addition to our usual help desk, ready to answer questions and make necessary changes quickly. We'll have a number of individuals out in the field to help the end users, the ones sitting behind the computers, to work them through the process."

In a second wave of implementation, beginning in fall 2008, patients will be able to access parts of their own records online through an application called "My Chart." The remainder of clinical services will become part of the system at that time as well.