Kaiser Permanente Implements Electronic Health Record (EHR) system Kaiser Permanente is an integrated healthcare organization founded in 1945. The company operates one of the nation's largest not-for-profit health plans, with over o m on health plan subscribers. Kaiser Permanente includes Kaiser Foundation Hospitals 37 pitals) The Permanente Med Groups, with 611 medical offces The company employs nearly 176,000 people, i 17,157 ncluding HealthConnect operating revenue was almost $51 billion name of Kaisers comprehensive health information system. over the past decade HealthConnect has been a leader in the im plementation of electronic health records (EHR), computer-readable records of health-related information on In 2003, Kaiser had announced its intention to work with Corporation over a three-year period to build an integrated set of systems to support EHRs, computerized physician order entry, scheduling and billing, and clinical support a an estimated cost of $1.8 billion. This decision came after Kaiser had already made several unsuccessful attempts at clinical automation projects. The project eventually ballooned into a seven-year, $4.2 billion effort as the scope of the project was expanded time and again Training and productivity losses made up more than 50 percent of the cost of the project as Kaiser had to cut physicians' hours at clinics during training and was forced to hire physicians temporarily to handle the workload However, in 2010, Kaiser announced that it had fully implemented EHR applications at all of its hospitals and clinics Finally, it could begin reaping the benefits from its efforts. The HealthConnect system connects Kaiser plan ubscribers to their healthcare providers and to their personal healthcare information. The system uses EHRs to coordinate patient care among physician's offices, hospitals, testing labs, and pharmacies. The EHR is designed to ensure that patients and their healthcare providers all have access to current, accurate, and complete patient data. The system and its data are now accessible via smartphone as well as nal computer. During 2012, there were over 88 million subscriber sign-ons to the system. Physicians and nurses in hospitals, clinics, and private offices document treatment in the EHR system. After a physician enters a diagnosis into the system, he or she may receive a system message indicating that there is a best practice order set available for treating the condition. When hey enter a medication order, physicians receive alerts about potential allergic reactions or adverse dnug reactions based on other medications a patient is already taking. Physicians also receive automatic notifications about how lab test results should affect medication orders HealthConnect also provide capabilities to support bar coding for the safe administration of medicine. Under this system of administering medication, the murse first scans the patient's barcoded identificat wristband. The nurse next scans a bar code on the medication container that identifies the specific medicine and dosage. The system verifies that this medicine and dosage has been ordered for this patient. If there is not a match, the nurse receives an audible warning sigal Kaiser has found that use of a comprehensive EHR mproves health plan subscribers' satisfaction th the ncare delivery system. In addition, HealthConnect empowers healthcare plan subscribers to take more responsibility for managing their own health care. Kaiser subscribers can access HealthConnect via a Web portal at kp.org. Here they are able to view most of their personal health records online, including their lab results, medication history, and treatment summaries. Patients can enter their own readings from blood pressure and glucose meters. They can also securely email their bealthcare providers which cuts down on the amount of time patients spend on hold waiting to speak to a doctor and on the number of office visits the number of outpatient visits has dropped an average of 8 percent in the one and one-half years following EHR implementation at each hospital Each month patients send over 1 million emails to their doctors and healthcare teams through this component of the system. over 29 million lab test results were viewed online in 2011. In addition approximately 827,000 prescriptions are being refilled online monthly, and 230,000 appointments are scheduled month