Press Releases: Georgia

December 14, 2005

A New Form of Surfing: KP HealthConnect

Just like the long surfboards of yesteryear, paper medical charts are on their way out. They will become a thing of the past at Kaiser Permanente within the next year or so as the health plan enters the age of e-technology.

Kaiser Permanente of Georgia is implementing KP HealthConnect, a privacy-protected electronic patient record system. Its goal is simple: to take the doctor patient relationship to a new level, and improve the quality and delivery of care.

When the project is complete, every Kaiser Permanente department, facility, and region will share an integrated clinical and administrative information system.

This will give physicians and other authorized health care providers 24-hour access to medical information they need to manage a patient's care.

"KP HealthConnect is dramatically changing the way we practice medicine," said Joseph Cadle, MD, managing physician at Kaiser Permanente's TownPark Medical Center in Kennesaw. "Patients enjoy it and appreciate that their medical information is at their provider's fingertips right there in the exam room."

Orders for lab tests, prescriptions, X-rays, and other notes are typed into the system
and automatically entered into the patient's chart. After their visit, patients get a printed summary with vital information such as diagnosis, medication orders, and doctor's instructions.

While in the exam room, the doctor can pull up charts and graphs of a patient's
growth curves, blood pressure, and body mass index. The system also flags for abnormal test results and dangerous drug interactions and sends alerts when patients are due for certain screenings and wellness checkups.

In the future, Kaiser Permanente members in Georgia will be able to access online portions of their medical records and also book appointments, make payments, and send messages to their physicians.

Kaiser Permanente is the state of Georgia's largest nonprofit health plan, serving the health care needs of Atlanta metro area residents for 22 years. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Georgia, Inc. currently provides comprehensive health care services to approximately 275,000 members through 15 medical facilities in a 28-county service, and a network of affiliated hospitals and physicians. The Health Plan provided more than $5 million in community benefit programs and services.