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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Health officials in Utah will get $6.3 million to move toward paperless medical records.
The federal stimulus money will come to the Utah Department of Health over fours years. It will be used to build a computer system to share patient records among doctors and between hospital networks.
"Simply put, health information exchange means a patient doesn't have to carry medical records from one provider to another," said Matthew Airmet, consumer representative on the board of the Utah Health Information Network, a nonprofit group that will contract with the state to build the system.
Similar systems have been set up for sharing claims information among insurance companies, said Jan Root, the group's president and CEO.
Smaller clinics often can't afford electronic systems, and larger health facilities sometimes can't communicate with one another, Root said. She described the new system as a software pipeline that doctors could use to retrieve data from another provider about a patient's medical history and prescriptions.
That should help reduce medical mistakes, she said.
"Making information available at the point of care, regardless of where the patient seeks care in Utah, will improve the quality of that care," Root said.
Participating clinics would pay a subscription to have access to the records. Root said no one would have access to a patient's records without consent.
Utah health director David Sundwall said the move is essential for reforming health care in Utah.
"It's exciting to see our state grow and continue to break new ground in understanding health information technology and its power to transform care," he said.
State health officials plan a publicity campaign this summer about the paperless system.
The stimulus grant is part of nearly $1 billion nationwide targeting the advancement of health information technology and to train future workers in the industry.
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Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
