Print edition: 
In a push for efficiency and adaptation to electronic medical records, Wesley Medical Center is making some major changes that will affect its medical transcriptionists and some employees in its health information management department.
A Wesley official said Wednesday that the city's second-largest hospital plans to outsource the work of its medical transcriptionists and to centralize its electronic medical records.
The changes, which Wesley spokesman Paul Petitte said are in process or in the planning stages, could affect as many as 47 employees in the hospital's health information unit.
Petitte said DSG, a Jacksonville, Fla.-based firm, has been hired to do the hospital's medical transcription work.
"They are willing to employ all of our staff," Petitte said of DSG's offer to employ Wesley's 13 medical transcriptionists.
He couldn't say if there were major differences between the wages that Wesley pays its transcriptionists and what DSG will pay.
"Because of the cost that goes into technology... we needed a company that can do it more efficiently," Petitte said of Wesley's decision to outsource its medical transcription work.
Petitte said the outsourcing of medical transcription was a decision made locally.
But the decision to centralize health information was a corporate one, he said, made by HCA, Wesley's Nashville, Tenn.-based parent company.
"These are steps we had to take to keep up with medical records advancement and health care reform," he said.
He said the health information centralization hasn't yet occurred but could happen in May. HCA is keeping the centralized health information work in-house, he said.
He said the exact number of people affected at Wesley isn't certain at this point.
"If any positions are eliminated, severance will be offered," Petitte said.
