Three Washington communities to participate in EHR banking project

The Washington State Health Care Authority will spend $1.7 million to finance EHR banking projects in three communities, Government Health IT reported August 29.

 

Grant recipients include Inland Northwest Health Services in Spokane, and St. Joseph Hospital Foundation and the Critical Junctures Institute, both in Bellingham, according to the article. The Spokane organization will work with Google Health and the other two will work with Microsoft HealthVault.

 

EHRs are already in use in all three communities. However many patients have little access to their records, which they must aggregate when receiving care from more than one provider, according to the article. The project calls for participating healthcare providers to populate patients’ medical records with at least prescription information, and if possible, medication allergy information.

 

“It is difficult for patients or medical personnel to easily see the entirety of a patient’s medical information; clearly this is needed to provide the best care,” Steve Hill, authority administrator, told Government Health IT. The banks must be operational by the beginning of 2009.

 

Click here to read the Government Health IT article.