The nine-county Rochester area of New York recently cleared a major hurdle in starting a regional electronic data-sharing network. A group that includes hospitals, health insurers and businesses won a $4.4 million state grant to begin the Rochester Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO). Leaders from the business and health care sectors of the area are onboard and will contribute $1.9 million toward the effort.
Under the system, health care providers would be able to access health records for just about any patient. That ease of access could save lives particularly if a patient ends up in an emergency room, or is unconscious and cannot give information about their health history. Health care providers not familiar with a patient's history can have the information at hand and avoid ordering diagnostic tests, which may have already been done for that patient.
Not everyone is up for Rochester's RHIO, though. Most notably, ViaHealth, the area's second-largest health system, will not help fund the project.
1. Some doctors did require a little more hand holding. But we went slowly enough to let each doctor come along at their own pace.
Posted at 7:24AM on Jun 27th 2006 by Meridian