Cone Sees Drop In Income; Cites Electronic Health Records System

Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center is not alone among Triad hospitals in struggling with the implementation of a complex electronic health records system.

Cone Health, based in Greensboro, confirmed Friday it had an operating loss of $13.4 million through the first half of fiscal 2012-13, or through March 31.

By comparison, Wake Forest Baptist said in an April report to bond rating agencies it had a $49.6 million operational loss and a gain of $7.4 million in overall excess revenue through its second quarter of fiscal 2012-13. Stock investments offset the operational revenue loss.

Both hospitals attribute some of their operating loss to projected revenue that has been delayed related to problems rolling out their version of the Epic EHR system, particularly with billing, procedure coding and collections. Wake Forest Baptist went live with Epic in September.