Nov 18, 2006

Hospital data barter pushed to lower costs

Exchange could lead to electronic patient records

By Aaron Claverie

Three area hospitals and a Silicon Valley consortium are forming a data exchange that could eventually lower costs for local health care providers.

The exchange would decrease costs by allowing local hospitals to avoid duplicating some paperwork or paying a fee for the transfer of certain health care claims data.

Ultimately, the exchange, coordinated by Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network's Smart Health initiative, could lead to the creation of a unified electronic patient record that is available to doctors and patients anywhere, anytime, said Chris Dawes, CEO of Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, one of the participating local hospitals.

The other two participants are El Camino Hospital in Mountain View and Stanford Hospital and Clinics, which will contribute $50,000 each in startup costs and pay an annual membership fee to the nonprofit network to cover administration costs.

David Katz, executive director of the Smart Health initiative, said Friday that additional hospitals could soon join the collaboration.

If the unified patient database becomes a reality in the next few years, privacy concerns will be of paramount importance. Patients who do not want their medical records uploaded into the database can opt out at any point, Katz said. They also will be able to decide what portions of their medical records to make available.

"This is something that we or the government is never going to impose on people," Katz said.

Joint Venture is evaluating bids from potential vendors that would build the exchange, which will accept claims data from participants and transmit it in appropriate format to each health carrier.

"This is a great step for Smart Health," said Kevin Tabb, chief information officer and chief quality officer for Stanford Hospital and Clinics. "As we become more sophisticated in exchanging data, we can improve the quality of care for everyone."

E-mail Aaron Claverie at aclaverie@dailynewsgroup.com.