Electronic Health Records

May 2, 2008

Kaiser Permanente Demonstrates KP HealthConnect™ for Media in Washington, D.C.

Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic States invited Washington, D.C.-based media April 25 to a live tour of Kaiser Permanente HealthConnect™, the world's largest civilian electronic health record system, to show the uses and value of a fully operational, fully integrated health information system.

In a visit to KP's West End Medical Center in Washington, D.C., patient Jessica Peers and her primary care physician, Bruce Awad, MD, showed members of the press how My health manager (a recently launched patient portal linked to KP HealthConnect™) improved Jessica's and her family's quality of care, and reduced the amount of time Dr. Awad and his staff spent looking at paper medical histories. Media outlets represented at the event included NBC News, Congressional Quarterly, Health Plan Week and the Loudoun (Va.) Independent.

With health IT legislation pending in the U.S. Congress, electronic health records increasingly have become a topic of interest for the health policy media.

Peers, who utilized KP HealthConnect™ during her pregnancy, found the e-mail tool to be one of the most useful capabilities of the system. "As a first-time mom, everything was something new," Peers said. "And it was just so nice to be able to e-mail Doctor Awad with any concerns and know that I would get a response within a day or two tops, and many times, within hours.

As part of the tour, participants followed physicians on a simulated patient visit to a fully KP HealthConnect™-deployed facility. Using My health manager, Mark Snyder, MD, associate medical director of information technology, drafted and sent a sample e-mail from a KP patient to a KP physician about a medical issue the patient was experiencing. Attendees then traced the path of that e-mail throughout the facility, beginning in a clinical workstation – where the request initially entered the KP system – and into the examining room and through the discharge process, where the patient was given detailed recommendations for preventing and treating the cause and symptoms of his ailment.

"Our electronic health record is changing the nature of the doctor-patient relationship. We're able to be there for our patients whenever they need us, from wherever they – or we – are. The only thing required is Internet access," explained Dr. Snyder.

Also assisting in the demonstration was regional physician director Douglas Van Zoeren, MD. "Kaiser Permanente is committed to providing our patients with quality care, and we see accessible physicians as a means to that care," said Dr. Van Zoeren. "All 8.6 million of our patients are covered under our electronic medical record and over 2 million of those patients also use the patient portal to manage their care."

Following the event, NBC News shared the interviews with the Peers family and Drs. Awad and Snyder with local affiliates across the country. To date, more than 15 stations have broadcast segments on the success of Kaiser Permanente's model of care.