Sharon Hanks
In an unusual collaboration among competitors, five
Michigan hospitals -- including the three major ones in West Michigan
-- are launching a grassroots effort to accelerate the creation of an
electronic medical record system to exchange patient information and
clinical results between health care providers.
The advancement
would make the transfer of such things as lab work results, analysis of
X-rays, and the transcriptions of physician clinical observations, a
paperless exchange and virtually eliminate the need for fax machines or
computer print-outs.
Hospital representatives announced the
formation of a non-profit alliance called
Michigan
Health Connect last week, noting its goal matches that of the
federal government which is attempting to speed up the migration with
federal stimulus financial incentives.
Doug Dietzman, executive
director of Michigan Health Connect in Grand Rapids, says local hospital
officials have been meeting for the past several months to determine
the best way to help health-care givers migrate to the same
technological platform to allow a secure delivery of private patient
health information. They already use the same software to share limited
amount of information.
With an electronic transfer, health care
professionals could access at their fingertips the most up-to-date and
accurate records of their patients, promptly allowing physicians in
offices, clinics, nursing homes, hospitals and emergency rooms to make
the best medical decisions for them. To learn more the importance of the
electronic exchange, view a video hospital officials have posted on
youtube.
Spearheading
the drive in West Michigan are
Metro Health, Spectrum Health
and Novi-based
Trinity Health, the home office for
Saint Mary's Health Care
in Grand Rapids and
Muskegon
Mercy Hospital. The remaining hospitals are Lakeland Health System
in St. Joseph and Northern Michigan Regional Health System in Petoskey.
Dietzman say the initiative would impact an estimated 175 physician's
offices, hospitals, laboratories, long-term care and public health
facilities, clinics and other community organization health care
organizations in West Michigan.
"I think this attitude of
collaboration . . . is somewhat rare across the country." says Dietzman.
There are many stories about in-fighting among health care
organizations in the country, he says. "They don't get along and will
argue forever about control. The fact that this group (of competitors)
got together and decided to collaborate will make the activities and
implementation a lot easier."
Source: Doug Dietzman, executive
director of Michigan Health Connect, Grand Rapids
Sharon
Hanks is innovations and jobs news editor at Rapid Growth Media. Please
send story ideas and comments for the
column to Sharon at
sharon@rapidgrowthmedia.com. She also is owner of The Write Words in
Grand Rapids.