ETV before EMR With the launch of electronic medical records
(EMR/WakeOne) on September 22, it might be interesting to see
how patient records were stored and transported in the past at
the Medical Center. The Electric Track Vehicle (ETV), dubbed
"record runner" and described as an "oversized Lionel train,"
was the tunnel in which records were transported through the
Medical Center. When installed in 1992, it saved about 10 to 15
minutes off each round trip. Records were loaded into a "car",
as shown by Dean Bates, a Medical Records file librarian, then
transported. Initially, 12 cars rode the rails each day with 425
records. Prior to the ETV, vans ferried clerks and their carts
to Medical Records storage which looked like this in 1948. Mr.
Bates was featured in Around the Medical Center in 1992. Come
visit Dorothy Carpenter Medical Archives to explore the history
of the Medical Center in publications and artifacts.