San Francisco to start Health Information Exchange February 21, 2012 News, SFMS Member, Technology health information exchange, HealthShare Bay Area 0 HealthShare Bay Area is a health information exchange that will electronically link health records within the San Francisco medical community, as well as the greater Bay Area. Exchange of this data is expected to improve efficiency of healthcare delivery, decrease costs, and ultimately improve patient care within San Francisco. The San Francisco Business Times published an article in its recent issue that discussed HealthShare Bay Area and prominently mentioned SFMS. By Chris Rauber Behind closed doors, a number of San Francisco hospitals and medical groups are working with the San Francisco Medical Society and the city’s Department of Public Health to launch a health information exchange linking local emergency rooms and other clinical sites. By 2015, participants expect to invest nearly $11.7 million in the effort, dubbed HealthShare Bay Area, designed to improve quality while cutting administrative and unnecessary clinical costs. The initial group of participants includes the medical society; Dignity Health (formerly Catholic Healthcare West) and its two San Francisco hospitals, St. Mary’s Medical Center and Saint Francis Memorial Hospital; San Francisco General Hospital and the city’s network of community health clinics; Brown & Toland Physicians; Hill Physicians Medical Group; UC San Francisco; Chinese Hospital Association; California Pacific Medical Center and the Mayor’s Office. Insiders say the only big players not to sign on are the VA Hospital and Kaiser Permanente, although Kaiser is sitting in on meetings. The initiative has been housed under the Medical Society umbrella, but is looking to gain independent nonprofit status. It’s also signing up participants in San Mateo County and the Easy Bay, including John Muir Health. The project—co-chaired by Dr. Arieh Rosenbaum, a hospitalist affiliated with CPMC, and Dr. Amy Berlin—isn’t talking publicly yet about its plans, but expects to in coming months. A business plan dated Nov. 2, 2011, said HealthShare Bay Area hopes to raise $1.25 million in grants and $475,000 in seed money from founding organizations to fuel its first two years of operation, and to be self-sustaining by 2013. Source: San Francisco Business Times, February 17, 2012. Comments are closed.
