In choosing and deploying an EHR system, continually remind yourself of what it is you're supposed to bring to your practice: connectivity and better coordination among care teams; improved quality and patient safety; efficiency and reduced care costs. As you make system choices, ask how these goals can be advanced -- or hampered -- through specific EHR capabilities. Kaiser Permanente implemented the largest civilian EHR system in the world, KP HealthConnect, incorporating a number of third-party applications. It connects 8.6 million Kaiser Permanente patients (the company calls them "members") to their healthcare teams, their personal health information, and the latest medical knowledge.
