Earlier this year, when President Barack Obama proposed a revival of health care by converting outdated paper-based records into modern electronic systems in five years, hospitals around the country began the shift.

But Norman Regional Health System foresaw the limitations of paper files a year earlier.

While Norman digitized its records years ago, in February 2008, to improve care and cut costs, it installed a comprehensive electronic health record system, allowing providers to look at a patient's medical history over a span of time rather than individual encounters.

"This sets the backbone for physicians to share patients' records with other providers upon request and with the patient's consent," said Dr. Brian Yeaman, director of physician informatics for the hospital, who said the hospital invested its own money in the system before the Obama administration announced a share of the stimulus would go toward offsetting this cost.

And in about a year, the government is expected to help carry the tab.

"This was our plan before the Obama administration came in. Now it's just nice to know we're getting a little relief from the cost," said Yeaman, referring to the $381,000 in stimulus funds the hospital will receive in 2010 or 2011 as part of The Health Information Technology Extension Program.

Currently, the hospital and physicians are pulling money from their own pockets to pay for the switch, Yeaman said.

Not only has Norman's own funds been depleted for the system, which Yeaman couldn't "fairly" pin a price to, saying it's a multi-million dollar project costing $15,000 to $20,000 per provider, there is the hidden cost of lower productivity as personnel adjust to the switch.

"It's not easy. It's expensive. It's time consuming, but I like to think it's worth it because at the end of the day, it saves money. But what we truly hope to see happen is, we provide a safer environment for patient care and more accurate treatment," he said.

While President George W. Bush announced this conversion would be one of his policies during his State of the Union speech in 2004, Yeaman said there was no incentive to the provider or the hospital to shell out the money.

"That's been one of the delays: Who pays?" he said. "It's very expensive and overwhelming, but the stimulus funds will help with that."

He said Norman has 65 providers on electronic health records, and it is currently installing a live hub to transfer information between offices in January.

Norman is also part of a network of 13 metropolitan hospitals for the exchange of patient information.

Switching from paper to digital

While the Obama administration is pushing the most aggressively for the conversion to electronic health records, a Norman entrepreneur has been applying this business model for the last 10 years.