Electronic Health Records
May 28, 2008
California's Insurance Commissioner Notes Kaiser Permanente's Leadership in Personal Health Records
Kaiser Permanente is featured prominently in California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner's recent push for consumers to use Personal Health Records as a critical tool in managing their health care.
Poizner announced May 20 the creation of an industry working group to ensure that patients can transfer their Personal Health Records between insurance companies. Poizner noted that Kaiser Permanente has more than four times the percentage of members using electronic health records – 22.1 percent – than the state average. Kaiser Permanente is one of the seven organizations represented on the working group.
Poizner also released a report from his office, "Personal Health Records: A Helpful Tool for a Healthier You,"(PDF) that lists several ways that Californians can benefit from having PHRs. Among the benefits:
- Potential savings for patients, such as through elimination of duplicate tests in Emergency Room visits.
- Increased clinical effectiveness, such as through connection of Emergency Room physicians to patients' medical histories in PHRs.
- Access to medical records electronically during natural or man-made disasters. In one example, Poizner's report noted that Kaiser Permanente's electronic medical record system, KP HealthConnect™, allowed its members to obtain care during last fall's Southern California wildfires – even when the fires forced temporary closures of some facilities.
Kaiser Permanente's electronic health record, KP HealthConnect™, is the world's largest civilian electronic medical record. Kaiser Permanente announced last month that all of its 8.7 million members now have access to an outpatient electronic medical record. Furthermore, all of Kaiser Permanente's 13,000-plus physicians now have electronic access to their patients' medical records in every one of Kaiser Permanente's 421 medical offices and clinics.
For more about the California Department of Insurance's position on availability of Personal Health Records, view the department's website.
