Northwoods hospital goes paperless

New technology at a Northwood's hospital is making it easier to track patient's medical history. Ministry Medical Group's, Sacred Heart Hospital in Tomahawk is now using an electronic health records system.

Doctors and nurses are using tablet computers, instead of paper charts, to update patient history and medication prescriptions. The technology is slowly being implemented at hospitals across the state, but administrators say it's a first for the Northern region.

"We've had various versions of the system at our individual sites," explained Dr. Bob Sookochoff, Ministry Northern Region Vice President. "So we've been electronic to some degree, but each site has been individual and they haven't been linked."

The system creates one chart for each patient. So no matter what doctor they see, they're current medical information would be just a click away.