A new initiative will not only protect patients who go to area North Carolina hospitals, but will also give a boost to the local economy with 150 new jobs proposed.

Novant Health Inc. is set to hire approximately 150 people for an electronic medical records project that will decrease the number of medication errors and reduce duplicate testing for 13 Novant hospitals in North and South Carolina, as well as Virginia. The project will also include Novant physicians group which encompasses more than 360 clinic locations.

The company is investing approximately $500 million into the project and expects that the number of jobs could grow to 300 by the end of 2013.

Creating this electronic system will give medical professionals at Novant facilities access to patient records, so that a doctor has access to all of the information they need about a patient at their fingertips. Doctors will now know a patient's entire health history and will be able to prescribe with certainty, prescriptions that won't react adversely with other medications they are currently taking. Another benefit of the system is that doctor's can monitor patients through one record system. In addition, it will improve patient access to their own records so that they can schedule appointments and tests as needed.

This investment and undertaking of this project is projected to be available system-wide by the fourth quarter of 2015. Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina, will be the first facility to use the new technology by the fourth quarter of 2013.

The hope with this new system is to alleviate medication errors and provide high-quality patient care for area residents.

Source: Charlotte Business Journal, "Novant to hire 150 in Fort Mill for electronic health-records initiative," Jennifer Thomas, Feb. 21, 2012