July 16, 2012 – Botsford Hospital in Farmington Hills has joined Michigan Health Connect, a Grand Rapids-based health information exchange that now has 54 of the state’s 134 medical-surgical hospitals as members.
Four other health systems and 18 hospitals in Southeast Michigan have joined Michigan Health Connect in the past two years: Beaumont Health System in Royal Oak, St. John Providence Health System in Warren, McLaren Health Care in Flint and Novi-based Trinity Health.
“We are moving to a population health management structure and are interested in reducing costs and improving quality for our patients,” said Paul LaCasse, D.O., CEO of Botsford Health Care, the hospital’s parent company.
“We need decision support services and the ability to pass information between entities. We are well under way with electronic medical record systems at Botsford. We need the exchange to pass that information to other providers.”
Initially, about 110 physicians will use the exchange, with an additional 500 on their way to installing electronic medical records, LaCasse said.
Doug Dietzman, Michigan Health’s executive director, said many other hospitals in the state have discussed joining the exchange but are not ready because they haven’t completed installation of their electronic medical record systems.
“The secure exchange of medical records ensures quality and cost control while improving the efficiency of health care providers across the state,” he said. Read the full story here.
