WEIRTON — Weirton Medical Center is moving closer to completing the installation of the its electronic health information system, officials said.

The hospital and Oracle Cerner began work in January on implementation of a new electronic health record that will connect all patient information and physicians across the WMC network. The system, CommunityWorks, is in place in more than 300 hospitals nationwide and part of a larger electronic health information system, Millennium, which is one of the leading health information platforms in the United States

“Our partnership with Oracle Cerner to install the CommunityWorks platform is a big undertaking, but we are really excited about the progress our team is making on the project,” said Cristen Nopwaskey, WMC’s chief information officer. “The entire organization is involved because the system will affect every part of our operation. The goal is to combine all patient health information into a single platform. This means, if you come to the emergency room or visit a WMC physician office, your provider will be able to immediately access all the information necessary to provide the highest level of care. It also will provide patients with real time access to all their medical information in a single step.”

John Frankovitch, WMC president, said it’s the type of investment that is being made behind the scenes.

“Often, physical construction projects like our current $10M emergency room expansion make the news because they are visible but this $65M investment in a new electronic health information system is one of the largest community investments WMC has ever made. Much of health care is driven off an electronic platform so we view this upgrade as crucial to moving into the next phase of community health development,” he explained.

It’s all about making patient care better, Nopwaskey added.

“One of the other advantages of this new system will be to help facilitate the care of a patient transferred to one of our tertiary partners like WVU Medicine. Even if those hospitals operate on another system, having our patient data available in a single step will make integration between systems much easier, resulting in better patient care,” she said.

WMC expects the system to go live in the late fall.