Press Releases: National
August 23, 2010
New Book, Connected for Health Examines Kaiser Permanente’s Groundbreaking Electronic Health Record System
OAKLAND, Calif. — Kaiser Permanente’s 10-year, $4 billion investment to plan, implement and optimize an electronic health record system — the largest and one of the earliest comprehensive non-governmental systems of its kind — is the subject of the new book Connected for Health: Using Electronic Health Records to Transform Care Delivery.
Featuring contributions by nearly 50 Kaiser Permanente staffers, leaders and others involved in the initiative, and edited by project leader Louise L. Liang, MD, the book is both a celebration of a seminal accomplishment in the history of American health information technology, and a how-to guide relevant to a broad audience of health care policy makers, industry leaders and engaged consumers.
Published by Jossey-Bass, Connected for Health is now available in select bookstores and from online retailers. All royalties will be contributed to community service organizations in Oakland, Calif., where Kaiser Permanente is based.
Connected for Health, writes Dr. Liang, a now-retired Kaiser Permanente senior vice president, is about much more than implementing a new information technology for 8.5 million members. As she notes in her introductory essay, “This was not merely a big IT project. It was putting down the infrastructure for redefining and transforming health care.”
Donald M. Berwick, MD, the former head of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (and newly appointed administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services) makes a similar point in his foreword: “Kaiser Permanente was not after a modern information system,” he writes. “They were after a modern health care system.”
In fact, the book is surprisingly light on the technical aspects of large-scale electronic health record implementation, focusing instead on the strategic rationale for such a massive and, at the time, “bet-the-farm”-investment. A section called “Laying the Track” details how the project relied on an innovative “collaborative build” approach that enabled it to accomplish a formidable task — building a single electronic health record system across eight far-flung regions consisting of 36 hospitals and 14,000 physicians, as well as effecting a cultural transformation within the organization that has reached far beyond the technology staff.
The bulk of the book deals with how the organization is “harvesting value” from Kaiser Permanente HealthConnect®, referring to specific improvements and innovations in clinical quality, patient safety, patient access and engagement, care delivery and clinical research. Particularly compelling is a section on how Kaiser Permanente members have interacted with KP HealthConnect through the Web-based portal called My Health Manager. The portal has become the most widely used personal health record system of its kind, with more than 3 million registered members as of late 2009. Members are viewing their own test results at a rate of more than 5 million a month and sending electronic messages to their health care providers at a rate of 700,000 a month.
The book concludes with several chapters exploring future directions and opportunities in health information technology, with concluding remarks by Kaiser Permanente’s CEO and chairman, George Halvorson, the driving force behind KP HealthConnect. “The old path,” he writes, “has led to a dead end, but a new path beckons.” Connected for Health provides a highly readable and comprehensive guide to that new path.
About Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America’s leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, our mission is to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve 8.6 million members in nine states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information, go to: www.kp.org/newscenter.
