Harrison Medical Center has long been at the forefront of technology in the health care industry.

Recently, the hospital teamed up with GE Healthcare, a provider of health care information technology (HIT), in a multi-million-dollar agreement for a “broad portfolio of health care IT solutions,” according to GE.

These solutions include GE’s “full-featured electronic medical record (EMR), patient communication services, ePrescribing, quality outcomes measurement and revenue cycle management tools.”

Adar Palis, vice president and chief information officer of Harrison Medical Center, said he and Harrison spent more than two years looking for a technology company to help solve an ongoing issue in patient care — the sharing of information between hospitals and private care physicians.

The implementation of this new system will do just that, help extend Harrison’s EMR to community doctors, according to Palis.

“This will help interconnect community physicians with hospital physicians in a format where they can securely share information,” he said.

Getting patients involved in their own care is a big concern addressed by this deal as well. GE’s eHealth tools, like the Patient Portal, “a Web-based service that streamlines patient/clinic communications and gives patients round-the-clock access to portal services,” also was part of the package. Through this system, patients can register, set appointments, arrange for medication refills and make billing inquiries on their own.

Palis said the tools available now are great, but he is looking forward to even more in the future.

“The Patient Portal is good, but it can still be improved,” he said. “In the future, I look forward to a type of debit card with a patient’s information stored on it. This way they can just swipe their card and all of their medical information would then become available to the provider.”

“Harrison Medical Center is making a strategic investment in the future of health care that exemplifies the leadership this country is ready to embrace. For more than 40 years, GE Healthcare has been at the forefront of supporting innovative leaders in healthcare, enabling our customers’ business performance while helping them optimize clinical care,” said James M. Corrigan, vice president and general manager at GE Healthcare. “At Harrison and elsewhere, the powerful combination of EMR, HIE, practice management and patient portal solutions can have a combined impact even greater than the sum of its parts, and we look forward to working with an organization that believes so strongly in the role IT plays in advancing patient care.”