PeaceHealth clinics are joining a growing list of hospitals and clinics using electronic health records to record, retrieve and store patient health care records.

PeaceHealth’s Peace Island Medical Center in Friday Harbor will transition to Epic, a widely-used system, beginning Sept. 1.

“Timely information is critical to high quality patient care,” said Jim Barnhart, chief administrative officer for PIMC. “Our new EHR system is a more powerful tool to effectively help PeaceHealth clinicians better manage their patients’ care.”

PeaceHealth points out in a press release that Epic EHR is used by many health care facilities across the Pacific Northwest and nationwide, including University of Washington Health Care, Group Health and Swedish Hospital.

According to Barnhart, this makes it especially convenient for patients who travel and may need care outside of our community. Doctors from other health systems that use Epic EHR across the country can use Epic to easily look up notes from recent visits, as well as allergies, medications or other information for a patient who received care at PeaceHealth.

“Epic EHR supports better overall patient assessment and treatment decisions,” said Barnhart.