Electronic Health Records

Apr 15 2008

Kaiser Permanente Demonstrates KP HealthConnect™ to Washington D.C. Safety Net Providers

Kaiser Permanente recently demonstrated KP HealthConnect™, the world's largest civilian electronic health record, for safety net providers in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.

At Kaiser Permanente's West End Medical Center, members of the D.C. Primary Care Association – including Bread for the City and the Family and Medical Counseling Services, Inc. – received guidance from KP physicians on using electronic health records to improve quality and reduce the time physicians spend looking over lengthy medical histories.

The D.C. Primary Care Association is a nonprofit organization that works to improve health and eliminate care disparities by ensuring that the most vulnerable residents in the District of Columbia receive high-quality primary health care, regardless of their ability to pay.

Attendees followed physicians on a simulated patient visit to a fully KP HealthConnect™-deployed facility. Mark Snyder, MD, associate medical director of information technology, used My health manager to draft and send sent a sample e-mail from a KP patient to a KP physician about a medical issue the "patient" was experiencing. (My health manager is a recently launched patient portal linked to KP HealthConnect™,) Attendees then traced the e-mail throughout the facility, beginning in Dr. Snyder's workstation – where the request initially entered the system – and moving into the examining room and through the discharge process, where the "patient" was given detailed recommendations for preventing and treating the ailment.

"Our electronic health record is changing the nature of the doctor-patient relationship," Dr. Snyder said. "Our members can communicate with their doctors anytime, from any internet connection, for free through secure e-mail messaging. More than 275,000 secure e-mail messages are sent each month to Kaiser Permanente doctors and clinicians. In (Kaiser Permanente's) Mid-Atlantic States region alone, 25 percent of our members are using secure messaging, and that number continues to grow monthly," he said.

Also assisting in the demonstration were Douglas Van Zoeren, MD, physician director in KP's Mid-Atlantic region, and Ted Eytan, co-founder of the Patient Centered Health Information Technology blog.

"Experiencing the practical application of this technology through the eyes of the patient has been very valuable," said Lauren Mardirosian, senior project specialist at the D.C. Primary Care Association. "As we embark on the adoption of our own electronic record system, it's helpful to see what a fully operational and highly successful system looks like so we can incorporate key quality improvement elements for the benefit of the populations we serve."

This demonstration is part of Kaiser Permanente's efforts to share learnings and tools with the safety net community.

Kaiser Permanente is committed to supporting culturally appropriate care for vulnerable populations," said Dr. Van Zoeren. "Not only have we contributed over $570,000 in the past two years to the D.C. Primary Care Association and other local safety net providers, we also share our own quality and implementation learnings on an ongoing basis to help community leaders build a safety net system that will better serve the needs of local residents."