Katrina spurs e-health rollout with massive patient database

Drug Store News,  Oct 10, 2005  by James Frederick

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ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Hurricane Katrina spawned more than a swath of destruction in the Gulf Coast states early last month: It also vastly accelerated development of a system for storing and disseminating electronic patient health records for almost instantaneous, on-the-spot use by physicians, pharmacists and other health care providers. The creation of the system, called KatrinaHealth, could spur a rapid speedup of the Bush administration s plans for a nationwide electronic health information system and could put community pharmacies in the forefront of a revolution in data-driven health care.

"The development of electronic medication histories in this quick timeframe helps to demonstrate health care s ability to meet President Bush's call for full electronic health records in the next 10 years," noted Craig Fuller, president and chief executive officer of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores.

NACDS calls KatrinaHealth "a secure electronic database of health information created through collaboration between the Department of Health and Human Services, community pharmacies, health careproviders and private companies SureScripts, Gold Standard and the Markle Foundation. For the first time, such a system arms health care providers with patients' electronic medication histories so they can more effectively treat Hurricane Katrina evacuees across the country.

Attesting to the scale of the effort, the KatrinaHealth group has compiled medication histories on nearly 1 million people from 150 ZIP codes in areas affected by the storm. Chain pharmacies that began using the e-health network in the days and weeks following the devastation report positive feedback from providers and patients.

"With many thousands of patients from the Gulf Coast region now displaced across the country, health care providers have been scrambling to locate health records for this population, said Fuller. "In this time of need, we applaud the efforts and leadership or many NACDS chain pharmacy members, as well as the group of experts organized by HHS, including [e-prescribing platform provider] SureScripts. They are working tirelessly to make this essential information available to all health care providers as quickly as possible."

The KatrinaHealth group intends to make the system available to all community pharmacies and health care providers with a need for the information, according to NACDS. Access to the million-patient database can be obtained through the SureScripts Electronic Prescribing Resource Center at (866) Rx READY [(866) 797-3239].

In a separate but related development, SureScripts is praising a move by HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt to set up an advisory group whose aim is to promote standards for the eventual adoption of a nationwide electronic health information technology system.

The formation of the new committee, called the American Health Information Community, will help "to ensure interoperability and standards for electronic health records," SureScripts noted. SureScripts' president Kevin Hutchinson as been tapped for membership in the committee.

Hutchinson joins 15 other representatives of federal and state government and private industry interests, led by HHS "to develop, set and certify standards within the health care industry to achieve a common interoperable framework," according to the company. Such a framework will support decision making by doctors, pharmacists and other health professionals.

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