El Camino Hospital is developing eConnect, a service that will help us meet government requirements for electronic medical records, assist physicians with government compliance with those requirements, and collectively move all us toward the ultimate goal of building and using a community health information asset.

The Federal Government's Push Toward EMRs

The government has mandated that all physicians and health care providers move toward a system of record sharing and health care delivery that is more efficient. The government initiative will translate into incentives for physicians for those who demonstrate that they are meeting the requirements of moving to a shared, open and efficient electronic medical record (EMR) platform, and disincentives after six years. The ultimate goal of the initiative is to encourage medical practices to adopt and implement electronic medical and health records, and to develop this meaningful use into a community asset that will provide higher-quality health care delivery and eventually give patients access to their medical data in a single place.

This push from the government, part of the $850 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment act of 2009, is helping El Camino Hospital with its goal to build an EMR network between physicians, hospitals, local governments, schools, standalone clinics, therapy providers, nursing homes, home health agencies, hospices and free clinics such as RotaCare.

El Camino Hospital eConnect: A Free Electronic Delivery Service

The eConnect service is an electronic delivery service for results and reports, and is accessible at no cost by any physician who has Internet access and an access code. A key benefit to the service is that it allows physicians to receive patient data much more quickly and efficiently than with methods now in use--for example, faxes and couriers.

Even more functionality will be added to the eConnect service in the subsequent phases--for example, physician orders and results from other systems and the ability to schedule patients for selected services. An important note: A physician does not have to have an EMR system in place to use this service.

Phase 1a: Grid Deployment

• From ECH hospitals (Mountain View and Los Gatos), physicians will be able to view and print admission, discharge data, discharge summaries, operations reports radiology results and clinical lab results along with all ECH physician transcribed documents.
• In this phase, information may be viewed via a web browser or in PDF format for viewing, printing and filing. Any result may be printed automatically, on demand or on a user-defined schedule.

Phase 1b: eClinicalWorks EMR Interoperability

• For physician offices with the eClinicalWorks electronic medical records system installed, lab and other information will be integrated directly into the EMR.
• For offices using another EMR but who want this capability, please see eConnect Contacts below for more information.

Phase 2a: Patient Longitudinal Record

• Data from multiple ECH episodes of care will be available; access to the longitudinal record will be accessible via mobile smart devices such as the Apple iPhone.
• The eConnect grid will be made available to other Silicon Valley caregivers.

Phase 2b

• Electronic prescriptions and physician-to-physician referrals added
• EKGs will be available on the grid and in the longitudinal record
• PACS images will be viewable
• Scheduling of OR cases and imaging studies added
• Outbound orders from eClinicalWorks to ECH hospitals for lab and imaging studies
• Data can be exchanged with local governments and other caregiving organizations

Phase 3

• Data can be exchanged with patients' Personal Health Records (PHRs)
• Connectivity with other hospitals enabled
• Connectivity and data sharing with CalRHIO enabled

Phase 4: To Be Determined


For More Information

To learn more about El Camino Hospital's eConnect program, e-mail us at eConnect@elcaminohospital.org. Please provide the following information:

Name
Name of Physician's Office
Address
Phone
E-mail address

Or call Greg Walton, CIO, El Camino Hospital, at 650-940-7312.