CalRHIO receives $1 million grant from Sutter Health

HealthLeaders News Brief, June 26, 2007

The California Regional Health Information Organization (CalRHIO) announced that it has received a $1 million grant from the Sutter Health network of physicians, hospitals, and other health care service providers to advance secure electronic access to medical records in the state. CalRHIO is the nonprofit statewide initiative to improve healthcare safety, quality, and efficiency through the use of information technology and the secure, confidential exchange of health information throughout California.


"This grant provides critical funding to help CalRHIO accomplish its goals," said Don Holmquest, M.D., J.D., CalRHIO's president and CEO. "We are working to ensure that patients being seen anywhere in the state, regardless of where healthcare services are delivered, will have the most complete information possible available to their care provider. This is especially important for patients with chronic diseases and in an emergency."

Currently, a patient's medical information is often stored in paper files at different medical offices or on computer systems that can't communicate with each other. Research indicates that every day in California, 50,000 or more patients may receive suboptimal care solely because the physician treating them does not have access to critical data.

"As doctors, hospitals, and health systems like ours develop electronic health record systems for patients, it's essential that these information networks are capable of 'talking' to each other, and CalRHIO is leading this effort," said Sutter Health President and CEO Pat Fry. "Physicians, hospitals, and patients alike will benefit from more informed clinical decisions and better coordination of care that result from secure electronic access to medical records."

CalRHIO's HIE Utility Service will offer communities that want to enable their health care providers to exchange information an alternative to building and financing their own infrastructure. For communities that have already initiated local health information exchange efforts, the services offered will be compatible and complementary. Providers using the service must be authorized and authenticated and have either obtained a patient's consent or documented an emergency.