All ME hospitals sign on to electronic health records exchange

All of Maine's acute-care hospitals have agreed to participate in statewide network that allows health care providers to share and view patients' health records electronically. HealthInfoNet, a Portland nonprofit that operates the health records exchange, announced Tuesday that 34 of the state's hospitals already are connected to the system and four more are under contract to connect by the end of the year. The exchange was launched in July 2009. Maine is one of just a few states to have all of its hospitals connected to a health records exchange that allows providers to securely find and request information about patients from other providers, according to HealthInfoNet.