Three VCU Health System representatives selected for Governor’s task force

By Jonny Sismanis
University News Services

Three Virginia Commonwealth University Health System representatives have been appointed to Gov. Mark Warner’s new Task Force on Information Technology in Health Care, which will study how to make health care more efficient and affordable through the use of electronic health record systems.

Carl F. Gattuso and Carol B. Pugh, Pharm.D., both executives of the VCU Health System, as well as John M. O’Bannon III, M.D., a member of the VCU Health System Board of Directors, were among 33 people named to the task force.

The task force will evaluate digital information systems as well as other information-gathering technologies to improve the security and efficiency of health-care information in Virginia.

The VCU Medical Center is already one of just five completely digital health systems in the United States with its use of CERNER, an advanced software system implemented in May 2004. The CERNER system provides easy access to physicians, nurses and other health care professionals so they can see and process all available patient information clearly and accurately. The database also assists with diagnoses and research.

In the midst of rising health care costs and Medicaid expenses that reach nearly $4 billion annually in Virginia, the use of health care information technology aims to reduce these costs by eliminating extra paperwork and duplicate testing.

Gattuso is chief corporate officer, Office of the CEO, for the VCU Health System. Pugh is a pharmacist coordinator with the Health System’s Department of Community Outreach; and O’Bannon, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates representing the 73rd District, and a community physician, serves on the VCU Health System Board of Directors.