An effort heralded by former Gov. Tim Pawlenty as one of the nation's largest public-private initiatives to help doctors share electronic patient records has quietly disappeared.
The program was launched in 2007 to make care more efficient by sharing a patient's medical history, lab work and medications by creating an electronic health exchange.
Known as the Minnesota Health Information Exchange, the project was mainly used in emergency rooms. It involved Allina Hospitals, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, HealthPartners, Medica, UCare and the state Department of Human Services.
On July 1, the exchange's operations were merged into an exchange being built by Duluth-based Community Health Information Collaborative, or CHIC, according to an announcement Tuesday.
Cheryl Stephens, CHIC president and CEO, said there was a lot of duplication of effort between the two groups and not enough money to go around. CHIC focused more on rural areas, while the program involving the state, the insurance plans and providers was centered on the Twin Cities metro area.
"There were no hard feelings," Stephens said. "We were both trying to get the same grant dollars to be split twice, and we're doing essentially the same thing. So why not work together?"
CHIC, a nonprofit, was formed in 1997 and started building an online network to share health information in 2007. It has a network that includes 10 hospitals, 50 clinics, two-long-term care facilities and three federally qualified health care clinics.
Hospitals and clinics pay a fee to be part of its network based on the number of beds and number of providers.
But the marketplace is wide open, Stephens said. The CHIC network covers only about 5 percent of available hospitals. "It's early in its infancy," she said.
The Mayo Clinic has one of the oldest and largest electronic medical record systems, but until recently has limited the exchange of those records to within its system. It has received a $12 million federal grant to start a pilot in southeastern Minnesota to coordinate electronic records in public health offices, schools and medical centers.
Jackie Crosby • 612-673-7335
