Kaiser Permanente EHR System Could Be Model for Other Providers, Brailer Says
National Health IT Coordinator Dr. David Brailer on encouraged health care providers to replicate Kaiser Permanente's new $3.3 billion electronic health records system, the Oakland Tribune reports (Vesely, Oakland Tribune, 8/3). Brailer was speaking at a health IT conference in Oakland sponsored by Kaiser (Silber, Contra Costa Times, 8/3).
Kaiser's medical information system, called HealthConnect, is part of a 10-year initiative to store patient data in a single format. The secure system allows Kaiser members and medical staff to track medications, patient information, laboratory results and other data through the Kaiser Web site (Oakland Tribune, 8/3).
Dr. Andrew Wiesenthal, associate director of the Permanente Federation, said HealthConnect has been implemented at Kaiser facilities in Colorado, the Pacific Northwest, Hawaii, Georgia and Ohio, as well as some facilities in the mid-Atlantic region. In addition, HealthConnect currently is functional in some Sacramento facilities, and health plan members in Northern California will be able to use the system to e-mail physicians beginning next month (Contra Costa Times, 8/3).