ST PAUL, MN – About 75 percent of Minnesotans' patient records are online, thanks to a user group that has connected eight of the state's largest healthcare organizations and is expected to connect two more within the year.
The eight healthcare organizations are members of the Minnesota Epic User Group (MNEUG), which has established 23 special interest groups to promote education and information-sharing among hospitals and clinics in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.
They are:
   1. Allina Hospitals & Clinics;
   2. CentraCare Health System;
   3. Essentia Health;
   4. Fairview Health Services;
   5. HealthPartners Clinics and Regions Hospital;
   6. Hennepin County Medical Center;
   7. North Memorial Health Care; and
   8. Sanford Health.
CentraCare, North Memorial and HCMC conducted a pilot program last winter to test the system, and the eight organizations went online in a phased rollout that was completed this past summer.
They are able to share information through the Care Everywhere software and network, developed by Verona, Wis.-based Epic. Patients must consent to each connection between two organizations at each visit in accordance with applicable laws. Physicians report that the ability to access and share patient records quickly and securely enhances the quality and continuity of care for patients.
Bryan Rolph, MD, was one of the physician champions at St. Cloud, a hospital in the CentraCare Health System that has been using Epic for about five years. He said using the Care Everywhere system makes it possible to "seamlessly look at data from other Epic systems."
"Each hospital has its own version of Epic," he said, but the system allows them to see patients' records in the same setting. After receiving signed consent from the patient, "with a click of a button we have access to their outside medical records within the same user interface," he said.
Prior to using Care Everywhere, Rolph said care providers had to wait for faxed records, which were sometimes incomplete or illegible.
Care Everywhere "provides the information in a more timely, organized and accurate way," he said.
Jon C. Krook, MD, one of the physician champions at Hennepin County Medical Center, said the Care Everywhere system is helping them achieve something that all hospitals should be doing. "There is no reason in 2010 that we shouldn't be able to share this information," he said.
 "(There) is absolutely no technical barrier" to why patients' medical records can't be shared electronically across all hospital settings, he added. 
Krook said without government support there wouldn't be standardization for hospitals to talk to each other.
"When there is better information, there is better care for patients," he said.
Hugh P. Renier, MD, vice president of medical affairs at Essentia Health, said Care Everywhere provides better continuity of care. For example, he said, it can be used in cases where people visit an emergency room at a hospital they've never visits before.
"The ER physician can make a more informed diagnosis and treatment plan," Renier said. "And that ER physician may in some cases be able to avoid unnecessary duplicative testing. You get better and more cost-effective care. That's especially good for you.  It's more satisfying for the ER physician. And it drives down the cost of healthcare."
The Grand Forks, N.D.-based Altru Health System, which serves northeast North Dakota and northwest Minnesota, and Minneapolis-based Park Nicollet Health Services will join the EHR network within the year, say officials.