AN ACT directing the department of health and human services, division of state operated healthcare facilities, in coordination with the department of information technology, to execute a contract that provides for the implementation of epic software as the standard, uniform software platform for electronic health records within the state's psychiatric hospitals; and appropriating funds for that purpose.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  By October 1, 2021, the Department of Health and Human Services, Division of State Operated Healthcare Facilities, in coordination with the Department of Information Technology, is directed to execute a contract that provides for the following:

(1)        The implementation, by January 1, 2022, of Epic software as the standard, uniform platform for electronic health records within each of the State psychiatric hospitals under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services pursuant to G.S. 122C‑181.

(2)        The training of the State's psychiatric hospitals staff on the use of Epic.

SECTION 2.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Information Technology the sum of ten million nine hundred thousand dollars ($10,900,000) in nonrecurring funds for the 2021‑2022 fiscal year and the sum of twenty million dollars ($20,000,000) in nonrecurring funds for the 2022‑2023 fiscal year to be allocated to Fund Code 24667 to cover the costs of the contract required by Section 1 of this act.

SECTION 3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2021.