PROVIDENCE – The R.I. Senate last week approved legislation to establish a statewide health information exchange to make it easier for doctors, hospitals and other health care providers to securely exchange patient medical information.
The bill, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Paiva Weed, D-Newport, sets the parameters for patient privacy and data security to govern a soon-too-be-launched R.I. Health Information Exchange, a secure network for providers to share health care data and patient information.
The state has been preparing that exchange since 2004, when Rhode Island was chosen as one of six states to receive a $5 million grant from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to support a community-based effort to design and develop a statewide system for the secure exchange of medical information.
The goal of the exchange, which is being developed by the Rhode Island Quality Institute – a collaboration between state agencies, health care providers and insurers – and the R.I. Department of Health, is to improve health care quality and reduce costs by ensuring that providers have access to as much relevant information as possible when treating a patient.
The exchange would make it easier, for example, for an emergency-room doctor treating a patient with heart-attack symptoms to look up his medical history, see recent EKG results, etc., or for a doctor about to write a prescription to look up all the drugs the patient has already been prescribed by others, as well as any known allergies or other problems. Along with supporting better health care, the exchange is expected to save money by reducing the need for duplicative lab tests, imaging and other procedures when information about prior tests is not readily available.
But before the exchange goes live, state leaders needed to address concerns about patient privacy, how people will control access to their data, and how the data will be protected from hackers or other intruders. This legislation, a version of which was also filed in the House by Rep. Peter F. Kilmartin, D-Pawtucket, was designed to do that. Participation for both patients and providers would be voluntary, while the entire system would be overseen by both the Department of Health and an independent advisory commission. Those who are convicted of abusing or misusing the system would be penalized.
Kilmartin’s bill was held for further study by the House Health, Education and Welfare Committee; the Paiva Weed bill now goes before that same committee.
In a news release, Paiva Weed described the structure set up by the legislation as a “win-win situation for doctors and those who rely on their care.”
“Many of us have three, four or even five doctors that we see on a regular basis as part of our regular health care regimens,” she said. “While a combination of multiple doctors and specialists are able to provide us with optimal care, communication among different health providers has been notoriously difficult. With the implementation of standardized electronic medical records, doctors will be able to get the information they need to provide the best care possible, while advanced safeguards will protect patients’ private information from getting into the wrong hands.”
The full text of the Paiva Weed bill is available here: www.rilin.state.ri.us.
For more information about the Rhode Island Health Information Exchange, go to the Rhode Island Quality Institute Web site, www.riqi.org.
