Posted on Thu, Nov. 05, 2009

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Wichita doctors look to state to start health information exchange

BY KAREN SHIDELER

The Wichita Eagle

Wichita's health care community has stepped back from planning a health information exchange, deferring to efforts to create a statewide system supported by federal funding.

But local health care leaders still hope to have the initial part of a system in place before the end of next year.

A health information exchange would allow hospitals, medical practices, labs and pharmacies to tap into a central source of information about patients, such as what tests they'd had or what medications they'd been prescribed. That could decrease errors and increase efficiency.

The Medical Society of Sedgwick County hoped to have a pilot project in place by the end of this year.

Those plans were put on hold when the state convened an e-Health Advisory Council to come up with a statewide system. Kansas expects to get $9 million in federal money to help fund it.

"It became clear that Sedgwick County and Kansas in general would be better off with us becoming part of a state project rather than being autonomous," said Wichita physician Ron C. Brown, who is president of the local medical society.

Jon Rosell, executive director of the medical society, is a member of the e-Health Advisory Council.

"I think there's great momentum and increased focus on HIE for the state," Rosell said. With the participation of groups including the Kansas Medical Society, the Kansas Hospital Association and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, "it's moving very rapidly."

Brown said he thought the state group would endorse a system much like the one the medical society had been looking at, with communication through a central server via a password-protected system.

That would allow providers to participate regardless of the type of electronic health records system they had.

Brown hopes a group of about 300 Wichita physicians, from Wichita Family Medicine Specialists, West Wichita Family Physicians, Wichita Clinic and possibly Wichita Surgical Specialists, will be the first group to use the exchange, by October 2010, with all the providers in Sedgwick County on board 12 to 18 months later.

Rosell said that timetable is "a great goal" and he hopes to see Wichita chosen as the place to start implementing the statewide system.

"I'm extremely optimistic about Wichita's position to be the launch pad for that HIE," he said.

Reach Karen Shideler at 316-268-6674 or kshideler@wichitaeagle.com.

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