Novant Health Hoping For Smoother Transition To Epic Records System

In the middle of a $600 million, 10-year initiative to put in place a new Epic Records Corp. electronic medical records system, Novant Health has seen two of its Triad counterparts rack up operating deficits as they've brought the same Epic system online.

As I reported last month, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center finished its second quarter on Dec. 31 with a $33.7 million operating deficit, largely due to higher than expected costs from its Epic rollout in the fall. Next Greensboro-based Cone Health finished its second quarter on March 31 with a $13 million-plus operating deficit, with Epic-related costs as a main driver behind the health system falling into the red.

Novant's IT undertaking is much more significant and expensive than that at either Wake Forest Baptist or Cone, so a stumble on par with what those two systems faced could be even more catastrophic.