Backed by a cheerful marketing campaign, two of the largest health systems in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, have merged medical records, allowing patients to access their information through a single portal.
The campaign known as “Happy Together” paired medical records systems at Novant Health and Wake Forest Baptist Health. Although both health systems use Epic, patients were previously forced to maintain separate MyChart accounts for each system. As of Jan. 14, patients could access records at either system through a single account. Providers will also be able to access patient records in each system.
Three days after the feature went live, about 6,700 Novant Health patients had merged their accounts, according to an announcement.
“‘Happy Together’ for MyChart will allow patients to combine data from the two systems into a single view to improve their understanding of medications, lab results, plan of care and follow-up appointments,” Keith Griffin, M.D., the chief medical informatics officer for Novant Health, said in a release. “It is truly a major step forward towards the goal of patient engagement and elimination of barriers of information and confusion.”
RELATED: Carolinas HealthCare and Novant Health launch partnership to share medical records
Novant launched a similar partnership with Carolinas HealthCare System last year to integrate each provider’s health information exchange (HIE) platform. Shortly after, Carolinas announced a merger with UNC Health Care to become one of the largest nonprofit systems it the country.
The campaign is part of an ongoing copacetic relationship between two systems that were once considered competitors. According to the Winston-Salem Journal, the two systems have also planned a joint venture to open a behavioral health crisis center.