Posted on: Wednesday, October 27, 2004

Medical records going online

By Deborah Adamson
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawai'i will soon join a handful of other states in setting up a statewide network that will give doctors and patients access to medical records via the Internet.

The Quality Healthcare Alliance, a consortium of businesses and physicians, will begin work on the project in January on Maui. The project, expected to take four years at a total cost of more than $10 million, will be launched on the Neighbor Islands before adding O'ahu.

"It is a pioneer project," said Gary Allen, executive director of the Hawaii Business Health Council, an association of employers that's part of the alliance along with the Hawaii Medical Association and others. "It has never been done in a statewide effort" in Hawai'i.

Nationally, he said, only four other states have embarked on similar projects — Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Colorado and Tennessee.

The goal of the health network is to provide online access to records, test results and prescription information to improve patient care as well as boost efficiency in the healthcare system to save money. Authorization will be needed from patients and doctors to access information.

Through the network, doctors can look up a patient's history to avoid prescribing medicine that conflicts with other medications being taken. At present, medical records and lab results are transmitted by hand delivery or fax. Frequently, a doctor seeing a new patient has to rely on the patient's often incomplete recollection of other health problems, medications and tests taken.

The online network will allow doctors to gain access to medical histories through their personal digital assistants, such as a Palm, or office computers.

The electronic network also can help doctors avoid ordering lab tests that already have been done by another physician. About 20 percent of outpatient services are duplicated, which contributes to rising healthcare costs, Allen said.

Earlier this year, the alliance received a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to help pay for the first phase of the project. After it meets certain performance criteria, another $1 million will be awarded.

Sen. Dan Inouye, D-Hawai'i, supported the alliance's application for the federal grant.

"The Quality Healthcare Alliance's project has the potential to serve as a national model," Inouye said in a statement.

Since Hawai'i is an island community whose population is concentrated geographically, it doesn't face the same difficulties in implementing an electronic healthcare network as states with a more dispersed population, the group said.

For the long term, the alliance's goal for the project goes beyond instant access to patient records.

Using data about an employee's health, businesses hope to encourage employees to stay healthy through financial and other incentives, said Pauline Bailey, president of the Hawaii Business Health Council and human resources director at Punahou School.

The hope is that there will be improved emphasis on preventive care.

Reach Deborah Adamson at dadamson@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8088.