By Mary Beth Hislop

On the heels of the nation’s Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ campaign to reinforce the value of electronic health records, the El Camino Hospital Board recently approved funding to purchase and deploy software and services for electronic medical data for hospital physicians. The three-year project implemented last month is capped at $4.25 million.

In January, Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Acting Administrator Kerry Weems visited El Camino, the first hospital in the United States to implement an electronic records system in the 1970s. Weems was researching the positive outcomes for electronic health records.

“Our research shows that the implementation and adoption of such technology will benefit patients by improving quality and increasing safety and efficiency,” said Eric Pifer, El Camino’s chief medical information officer.

While patients could benefit from reduced medical errors, costs, duplication of tests, reduced delays in medical treatment and access to their own medical information, the high cost and difficulty in implementing an unfamiliar system often deters doctors from adopting new software.

“Cost is always a concern for smaller practices,” Pifer said. “They don’t have a lot of bargaining power.”

El Camino has invited doctors associated with the Independent Physicians Group to incorporate electronic records into their practices. The group will establish a board of directors, which could formalize an agreement between the doctors and El Camino. However, physicians must sign up to convert to the electronic system, Pifer said.

Currently, Pifer said 60-70 doctors have committed their practices to the records project. He hopes to add 150 or more. Doctors will pay $250 each month for software and technical services but must provide the computers.

“We can’t subsidize the hardware,” Pifer said.

Pifer expects the first group to go “live” by the end of summer, with two to three practices adopting the system each month thereafter.

El Camino will purchase software from E-Clinical Works, which specializes in electronic medical records software for smaller physician practices.

“They’re basically the market leader in the United States for independent physician practices,” Pifer said. “They’re committed to quality high-tech software.”

Larger medical groups, such as the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, require different software.

Once electronic records are established, physicians will be able to access their patients’ medical records from the hospital itself. Pifer said someday the system would be fully integrated so doctors can access inpatient and outpatient records.

“That’s going to be an ongoing project,” he said.

Although Kaiser Permanente encountered many problems and delays implementing its own large-scale electronic health-records program, Pifer doesn’t anticipate problems on the same scale.

“Electronic records are never a walk in the park,” Pifer said. “Things can happen. But our project is much more contained (than Kaiser’s). It’s just going to be a more manageable project.”

Contact Mary Beth Hislop at marybethh@latc.com.