A growing number of medical practices now use electronic health records. However, the key to unlocking the full potential of this technology lies not with any one provider using it, but rather with a network of doctors sharing patient information electronically. This has the potential to improve the delivery of care in many ways while reducing costs.
An important element of this record sharing is the health information exchange network. While federal authorities work to establish a nation exchange, smaller private health networks are leading efforts to launch their own exchanges.
For example, St. Clair Hospital and Butler Health System, two of the larger providers in the Pittsburgh area, recently announced the launch of their own health information exchange network, according to the Post-Gazette. Officials said that patients can now have their records follow them to any provider in the network.
"The more we can interface, the better coordination of care we'll have," Rich Schaeffer, the chief information officer at St. Clair, told the news source. "It's just something that's imperative as we move to the future."
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT is currently working on a nation health information exchange that would allow any physician in the country to share a patient's records.