Hawaii selects Medicity for medical record network

reposted from bizjournals.com

Hawaii officials have selected Utah-basedMedicity to develop the infrastructure for what will ultimately be a statewide electronic medical record system as Hawaii moves ahead with a key mandate of federal health-care reform.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie and the nonprofit Hawaii Health Information Exchange on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding outlining the plan for implementing a statewide network that allows health providers in the Islands to sh....

It marks a major step forward in integrating the various electronic medical record systems already being used by hospitals, clinics, physicians and other health-care providers statewide.

Currently, those records aren’t shared across the continuum of care readily and easily so it’s almost entirely up to patients to keep their doctors informed of where or from whom they’re getting health-care services.

And the success of the exchange will depend on the level of participation and buy-in from doctors who control their patients’ medical records. The ultimate goal of a statewide health information exchange is to improve patient care and make the health-care system more efficient, according to Christine Sakuda, executive director of the Hawaii Health Information Exchange.

“A secure and scalable infrastructure enables us to start connecting Hawaii’s health-care providers gradually and increase the sharing of information to more effectively diagnose and treat patients,” she said in a statement Monday. “We look forward to implementing this health communication technology, which will help us improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of health care in Hawaii.”

More information on the Hawaii Health Information Exchange is available at www.hawaiihie.org.

Linda Chiem covers tourism, hospitality, health care, law and advertising for Pacific Business News.