Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital is one of the area health care providers, including Yuba Docs and the Miners Clinic, who turned to electronic health records long before the government began encouraging them.

After using an internal electronic health record system for almost a decade, the hospital is developing a way to share electronic health records on a larger scale.

In 2006, it embarked on a comprehensive, community-wide electronic health record project — the Greater Sierra Health Information Organization (GSHIO). The project allows a host of health care providers to efficiently and securely transit patients' records, paving the way for easy-to-use electronic communications between patient, physician, pharmacy and facilities such as skilled nursing homes.

While SNMH spearheaded GSHIO, the project will eventually stand alone in its goal of maintaining an electronic health record system available to all physicians at an affordable rate, said Mark Freitas, director of business and information technology services.

“It's the hospital-provider interaction,” he said.

There are different vendors available for implementing electronic health care records. GSHIO uses a product called eClinicalWorks, and is essentially a super-highway of information, Freitas said.

Participants in GSHIO, including the County Department of Public Works, can successfully share records; providers such as Yuba Docs, who use a different program, can only view records. The next challenge is getting different programs to effectively communicate with one another to open up information sharing on an even larger scale, said Debbie Plass, vice president of marketing and business development.

A total of $761,000 in federal grant funding has already been raised for GSHIO, Freitas said. It currently has 20 providers, with eight in the queue to join; the project hopes to have 50 to 60 providers, he said.

GSHIO is positioning its providers to help them receive federal incentives for use, said project manager Margaret Leonard. Providers can eventually receive up to $44,000, she said.

Benefits of electronic health records run the gamut from cost to clinical, decreasing staff time for transcriptions and orders, lessening the need for paper storage and allowing simultaneous access to records, Plass said. Old medical records can be easily accessed, the margin for error narrows, and many would-be duplicate tests are eliminated.

Privacy measures include a secure tunnel for remote access and encrypted software, as well as controlling who is authorized to view records, said Leonard.

“We've taken complete steps to ensure privacy of records,” Freitas concurred.

Patients can choose to opt in or out of the program.

A Health Information Exchange project is being developed, and will strengthen sharing between providers as well as between different vendors. A patient portal also is being created, where data can be remotely accessed and questions asked.

Freitas compares the security of the program to that of a bank vault.

“We want to reassure patients, that it's the patients who decide access,” he said.

To contact Staff Writer Angela Diaz, e-mail adiaz@theunion.com or call (530) 477-4203.