Kansas University Hospital began using its multimillion-dollar electronic patient record system this week.

The system, provided by Epic Systems Corporation and the subject of a legislative audit earlier this year, is expected to reduce medical errors and make it easier for patients to understand their treatment.

“This will take us to the next level from a quality and safety standpoint,” said Chris Hansen, KU Hospital’s senior vice president overseeing the new system. “It’s really a foundation from which we can build out from.”

Hansen said with the new system a person’s medical records will be available to any clinician within the KU Hospital system. No longer, he said, will it be necessary for a person to carry their records from doctor to doctor, or to have them faxed from office to office.

Instead, doctors and nurses will upload a patient’s record at stations throughout the hospital or on portable computers.

Patients also will have greater access to their records because they can upload them from their homes by using a “password-protected, secure” online database.

“The opportunity to view your records is powerful,” Hansen said. “It has the potential to let people better manage their own care.”

He said, for example, people could easily see what medications they were to take and how often.

Tammy Peterman, the hospital’s chief operating officer, said the rollout had gone well since it started at 1 p.m. Monday. She said Tuesday was the first day the hospital had done most of its discharges using the new system.

“Now we know they can do it,” she said. “It’s going to take a little longer to get everything done for now, but it will get better.”