NEWS RELEASE
Region-wide health information exchange gets underway, all of San Antonio’s major hospital systems and numerous other providers are sharing medical records electronically
(SAN ANTONIO) November 12, 2013 –– Local officials from Healthcare Access San Antonio (HASA), the entity putting together the Health Information Exchange (HIE) for this region, was joined today by the major health systems and Councilman Ron Nirenberg to celebrate that physicians at five of the six major hospitals in San Antonio are now able to share patient records. This is a first for our region and represents the first step to connecting with other HIEs throughout Texas and the nation.
Starting this week, Baptist Health System, CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Health System, Nix Health System, Methodist Healthcare System and University Health System are either providing or are in the process of providing secure patient records into HASA’s HIE. This represents the medical records for more than 600,000 individual patients.
Electronic health information exchange, or "HIE," is the electronic movement of health-related information among organizations according to nationally recognized standards. Developing an HIE goes back to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)of 1996. One of the Ps stands for portability of patient records. HIE also is an integral component of the health information technology (HIT) infrastructure under development in the United States and the associated National Health Information Network (NHIN). In 2010 HASA received Federal Funding to develop the HIE for all medical providers and for all patients in its 22 county region that includes Bexar County.
Gijs Van Oort, executive director for HASA said, “Today marks an important milestone of something that will profoundly benefit our community well into the future.”
