Health
Health information system aims to improve care, save money
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By CELESTE BOTT
Capital News Service
LANSING – A three-year pilot project for an electronic database of patient information may help make health care safer, more efficient and more affordable. It could help lead to a system in which all providers know the relevant details about their patients, without those patients filling out tedious and repetitive forms.
The Michigan Health Information Network (MiHIN), based in Grand Rapids, is partnering with Illinois-based Care Team Connect to better coordinate that kind of health care through technology. MiHIN is funding the ongoing Michigan Primary Care Transformation Project, which will allow participating care managers to receive real-time notifications of admissions, discharges and transfers of patients. Care Team Connect will initially provide data for an estimated 25,000 Grand Rapids-area patients. The project will record patients’ medical information and provide treatment updates among physicians electronically through a health information network in Grand Rapids.