Pitt County Health Department Joins Vidant Health EHR | Eastern North Carolina Now

Press Release:

    Greenville, N.C.     Oct. 2, 2018     Vidant Health and the Pitt County Health Department have a long history of working together for the good of public health. Now, advancements in technology and updates to Vidant's electronic health record (EHR) will make that even more beneficial for patients.

    Effective April 10, 2018, the Pitt County Health Department became the first health department in the state to go live on EPIC, the system Vidant uses to power its EHR.

    "The missions of both organizations are closely aligned," said David Michael, MD, chief medical information officer for Vidant Health. "Improving the health and well-being of eastern North Carolina requires strong collaboration and partnership-which now extends to our EHR, for the benefit of patients, families and the communities we serve."

    Vidant implemented a system-wide update of its EHR last fall. The changes streamlined organizational use of the EHR, providing a more efficient process for team members and in turn, for patients.

    Those changes also paved the way for providing access to others who may be involved in or impacted by a patient's care-local practices, providers and in the case of Vidant Medical Center (VMC), the Pitt County Health Department.

    "Our services overlap with those provided at VMC quite often. For instance, initial screening tests are often performed in a Vidant emergency department," said John Morrow, MD, MPH, director of the Pitt County Health Department. "The outcome of those tests have an impact on our county's overall health and well-being, and our ability to see that information in real time is hugely beneficial. An integrated record reduces time and effort all the way around, which benefits not just the patient but the general public as well."

    Additional benefits include:

• Reducing duplicative vaccinations-which can happen if a patient arrives at the health department and can't remember if he received an immunization when being treated at Vidant. Access to the EHR will prevent this from happening.
• Improving coordination of prenatal care-if a woman receives prenatal care at the health department prior to delivering her baby at Vidant, now there is a way to ensure her delivery team has reliable access to her medical history.
• Following up in a timely manner on communicable diseases that could impact the public.
• Reducing the time for health department practitioners to receive outside medical records and coordinate a patient's care.
• Providing an easier referral process, getting patients to needed specialty care sooner.
• Enabling patient access to a combined patient portal called Vidant MyChart, where they can view important information about their medical history and communicate with providers
• Laying a foundation for future virtual care delivery.

    "This is another tool in our toolbox, and we're only at the beginning of benefitting from an integrated health record," said Michael. "We look forward to continuing to work with the Pitt County Health Department to provide aligned, efficient care. The public's health matters greatly-to all of us."

• Contact: Erica Mizelle
•     erica.mizelle@vidanthealth.com