Lt. Governor Anthony Brown Announces Maryland Health Information Exchange Milestone at Holy Cross Hospital
February 20, 2012 |
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Lt. Governor Brown announces significant milestone with the Maryland Health Information Exchange at a press conference at Holy Cross Hospital on Feb. 17. View more photos. Read the Lt. Governor's press release. |
Lt. Governor Anthony G. Brown and other federal, state and local officials announced at a press conference on Friday, Feb. 17, that all Maryland hospitals are now participating in the CRISP (Chesapeake Regional Information System for our Patients) Health Information Exchange. The press conference was held at Holy Cross Hospital, one of the first hospitals in the region to be part of the exchange.
“Maryland’s Health Information Exchange will help ensure that providers have the right information about the right patient at the right time so we can reduce costs and improve care for all Marylanders,” said Lt. Governor Brown. “Governor O’Malley and I have made becoming a national leader in the implementation of health information technology one of our administration’s 15 strategic policy goals, and this remarkable milestone demonstrates our commitment to moving aggressively to adopt health IT throughout the state.”
“We appreciate the choice of Holy Cross Hospital by the state of Maryland for this event and, as a CRISP ‘first adopter,’ we believe that it is helping us deliver high quality, safe and efficient health care for the residents of Maryland,” said Kevin J. Sexton, president and CEO of Holy Cross Hospital. “Our physicians now use the health information exchange as part of routine care and can point to numerous examples where it has been proven to be an essential tool in improving the quality of care.”
The CRISP Health Information Exchange allows instant and secure sharing of health information among approved doctors’ offices, hospitals and other health organizations throughout Maryland. The exchange allows real time sharing of clinical data such as test results, lab reports, radiology reports, electronic reports and more.
The Lt. Governor was joined at the press conference by Health and Human Services National Coordinator for Health Information Technology Dr. Farzad Mostashari, Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Secretary Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein and other officials.
Prior to the press conference, Holy Cross Hospital’s Chief Medical Informatics Officer and Emergency Department Director James Del Vecchio, MD, led the Lt. Governor on a tour of the emergency department and provided a demonstration of how the hospital uses the Health Information Exchange. At the press conference, Dr. Del Vecchio offered concrete examples of how patients have benefited from CRISP.