Universal electronic access to patient health records

I am taking a nursing informatics class. One topic that interest me is the access to all of patients health records, including personal health records, for all their healthcare providers to see. This would mean continuation of care since their records could be viewed to help make medical decisions such medication prescription. An organization called Brooklyn Health Information Exchange (BHIX) collects documents including electronic PHR to be viewed by hospitals, clinics, or any health care provider that are part of the pool. This is something I hope would be available in the future for any-one who travels to a different neighborhood, county, or even state for health care. Documents won't be loosed and the whole history of a patient is included in stead of starting from scratch.

I wanted to know if other hospitals or health institutions around your way are choosing to link up to create a universal access for patients health records in the net wor

Welcoming any-one's response

There is a movement going on. Do a search for RHIO and HIMSS.Its pretty interesting, and I surely know that I would love for my dads doctors here in NY to be able to see the full work up he did at MAYO in FLA.It is being investigated by many of the major hospitals on LI. But the push forward will always depend on security of the system, and a patients acceptance of it.

Indiana also has one, the largest in the country!! Their website is www.ihie.org.

Thank you for the site for indiana. I figure this would take some time due to factors such as patient information security access and patient acceptance. I though it would be great to have something like this, similar to the VA hospital. They can travel anywhere in the US and syill get the same healthcare. I was hoping for the same for non-veterans.