Officials with Vidant Beaufort Hospital this week announced $10.8 million in construction spending this year at the Washington hospital.

Most of the money for capital improvements slated for the 2011-2012 fiscal year at the hospital — about $6.8 million — will be spent on technological improvements to implement a computerized patient-records system, according to Harvey Case, president of Vidant Beaufort Hospital.

The system, Vidant EHR, formerly Health Span, is the information-technology platform used throughout the Vidant Health system, and it will enable patients to have a complete, electronic health record, he said.

The electronic medical-records system will improve a doctor’s ability to treat and track his or her patients and give the doctor instant access to information about any care their patients have received at any hospital in the Vidant Health system, Case said.

It will also make patient registration and scheduling easier and more efficient, he said.

Case outlined the construction plans for Vidant Health at a meeting last week of the Beaufort County Republican Club and in a budget outline released to the Washington Daily News earlier this week.

Vidant Health, formerly University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina, made a “strong commitment” to the hospital and the community to invest in capital improvements when Beaufort Regional Health System became part of the UHS last fall, Case said in a statement accompanying the budget outline.

“The budget for this first fiscal year of operation demonstrates that commitment. It is our goal to make improvements in technology and equipment to help us provide the highest quality patient care,” he said.

The 2011-2012 fiscal year runs from October 2011 through September 2012.

Vidant Beaufort Hospital’s capital-projects budget also includes $1.5 million for renovations and contingencies, including some $431,000 to replace the two main elevators that date to the hospital’s early years, $276,000 to replace and repair the roof in various areas and $134,000 to design expansion of the Marion L. Shepard Cancer Center, according to the outline.

The budget also includes $2.5 million for equipment purchases. This includes some $437,000 for upgrading the anesthesia machines and other upgrades in the hospital’s operating rooms; $400,000 for replacement of intravenous-therapy pumps throughout the hospital; $342,000 to replace hospital beds; $268,000 for installation of a central fetal-monitoring system in the Women’s Center; $142,000 for upgrades in the central cardiac system used in the hospital’s emergency department and $78,000 to upgrade patient monitors in the post-anesthesia-care unit, more commonly known as the recovery room.

Other improvements are scheduled for the waiting area for the hospital laboratory, the hospital canteen and waiting areas for some of the medical practices affiliated with the hospital, Case has said.

While hospital officials develop a long-term plan to enlarge and modernize patient rooms, some changes will be made to improve the appearance of those rooms, Case said.

Vidant Health also plans renovations to Vidant Beaufort Hospital’s emergency department — a project of more than $2 million that will need authorization from a certificate of need, which would be issued by the state, he said.

While Vidant Health waits for that certificate, hospital officials will work to develop a plan for caring for emergency patients while department renovations are under way, he said.