The state of Maine will launch a statewide health records network at the end of July as part of a two-year demonstration to prove that centralized access to electronic medical records (EMRs) can improve healthcare and reduce costs.
Dubbed HealthInfoNet, the nonprofit corporation will connect 15 hospitals, three group practice health clinics, and the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. These healthcare facilities handle 50% of all annual emergency department visits in the state, 40% of all ambulatory visits, and 52% of all inpatient admissions.
Medical records for some 500,000 patients out of a total 1.3 million residents have already been loaded into HealthInfoNet's database. Individuals can opt out of inclusion in the electronic records system.
Records will include radiology reports, but access to diagnostic images will not be available, according to Devore Culver, HealthInfoNet's executive director, as many rural areas of Maine have limited bandwidth. Culver expects the telecommunications infrastructure serving the state to be upgraded in future years, and said that a central image repository to interconnect with HealthInfoNet is planned as a future project.
Initially, 2,070 seat licenses will be available for clinician use, and each participating healthcare facility can allocate their use. Culver said that emphasis will be placed on making HealthInfoNet available to emergency and trauma departments; cancer, pulmonary, and home health departments; and hospitalists. The group practice clinics will focus on primary care delivery.
A study conducted in 2008 by the Center for Health Policy and Research at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester estimates that HealthInfoNet may save between $10.6 million and $12.5 million in healthcare spending in its first year of operation. By 2011, annual savings are expected to reach $20 million.
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