Consortium Joins Health Plan EMRs in Effort to Improve Care through Data Sharing

Five leading health systems – the Mayo Clinic, Geisinger, Kaiser Permanente, Intermountain Healthcare, and Group Health Cooperative – have announced a new initiative to securely exchange electronic health data, with the first data exchange planned in the next year. The consortium will utilize standards-based health information technology to share data about patients electronically.

These health organizations are largely closed medical systems, and will likely play a large role in the Accountable Care Organization effort under health reform. An ACO must have a high-level electronic medical records system in order to be effective and to qualify for enhanced Medicare payments.

The goal of the consortium is to demonstrate better and safer care with better data availability. If a patient from one system gets sick far from home and must receive health care in another system — or if any system sends patients to another — doctors and nurses at each of the consortium systems will be able to easily and quickly access invaluable information about the patient’s medications, allergies, and health conditions, allowing them to provide the right kind of treatment at the right time and avoid unintended consequences like adverse medication interactions.

“This collaborative effort exists because we all have reached the same important conclusion about linking and sharing patient-specific data,” said George Halvorson, chairman and chief executive officer of Kaiser Permanente. “Our…belief is that when doctors have real-time data about patients, care is better and more effective.”