WESTFIELD — Massachusetts has launched the next phase of an electronic medical records system designed to make it easier for doctors to pull up a patient’s medical history with the click of a button.
State officials say the Mass HIway Health Information Exchange will for the first time let health care providers locate, request, and retrieve medical records from other participating health care providers across the state on a secure, interconnected system.
Gov. Deval Patrick attended the launch of the system at an event Wednesday at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and said the new system would reduce health costs and improve patient care.
The event included a demonstration of the new technology. Emergency doctors simulated an encounter where a patient was unresponsive. By using the new tools, they were able to electronically track down the patient’s medical records at insurers and other medical centers in real time.
Massachusetts Secretary of Health and Human Services John Polanowicz said the new technology will help providers prevent medical errors such as drug-to-drug or allergic reactions. He said it also will help phase out more costly and time-consuming fax and paper-based records.
Massachusetts was the first state in the nation to receive federal funding to develop the Health Information Exchange. The Mass HIway system first went live for use by the Massachusetts health care community Oct. 16, 2012. Fifty-five institutions have already connected and are using the system.
Westfield’s Noble Hospital recently agreed to join the Pioneer Valley Information Exchange (PVIX), a Mass HIway initiative being led by Baystate Medical Center in Springfield. Once Noble is connected to PVIX this summer, medical staff will be able to make requests for patient data and respond to queries from other health care institutions across the state.
“Noble currently has the ability to send or receive a Continuity of Care Document (CCD) via the Mass HIway,” said Steve Cummings, the chief information officer and vice president of operations at Noble. “But it is a one-to-one relationship somewhat like sending an email with encrypted patient data attached.”
“It’s going to be a great benefit for our patients,” he said. “The state’s new features are coming this summer, and a facility can basically post on the Exchange, ‘Hey, does anybody know this about this patient?’, and the facility with that information can respond.”
The Pioneer Valley Information Exchange is contracted to the Health Information Exchange, meaning that Noble will be able to inquire about and subsequently acquire medical records from any affiliated hospital statewide — and beyond.
“Mass HIway is sort of like an interstate highway, so we will be able to send and receive information anywhere,” he said. “Some states like Maine have had statewide systems like this for the last couple years. It gives us a secure pipeline with which to send info.”
While patients may be somewhat skeptical of their information being more readily available, the system is designed so that only licensed care providers will be able to access the information if necessary.
“The government has set a standard for these systems,” he said. “I’m very optimistic that we have the infrastructure in place to serve our patients even better now.”
