The Herald Times
Dann Denny
April 20, 2009
Hospital wants to improve health information system
Bloomington Hospital wants to enhance and expand its Southern Indiana health information exchange, which links medical providers in four counties— enabling medical providers and hospitals to share patient information and records in electronic form.
That’s why hospital officials are grateful for $167,000 in federal funds for the Bloomington Hospital Foundation to bolster the exchange. It’s not federal stimulus money, but money U.S. Rep. Baron Hill inserted into an omnibus appropriations bill — a type of bill legislators use to secure money for specific projects. The funds, which will come from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, should arrive in the next few months.
“We need accurate medical information that will follow the patient wherever the patient goes — to the hospital, the pharmacy, a nursing home or a doctor’s office,” said Dr. Todd Rowland, the hospital’s director of medical informatics.
Rowland said since the hospital created the health information exchange in 2007, 200 physicians in 30 practices have each month electronically exchanged 130,000 pieces of patient information.
