South Carolina to Improve Patient Care with Enhanced Health Information Exchange

Gov. Mark Sanford today signed Executive Order 2009-15, establishing an Interim Governance Committee for statewide implementation of Health Information Exchange tasked with both overseeing our state’s existing exchange (SCHIEX) and setting the groundwork for plugging SCHEIX into the national exchange in the coming years.

Electronic health information exchanges, already established or being developed in a majority of states across the nation, will improve patient care and reduce duplicative tests by allowing doctors, hospitals and healthcare providers to share up-to-the-minute electronic patient information such as lab results and prescription drug information across town or across the country.

“Accurate and effective medical treatment goes to the very core of this larger notion of quality of life,” Gov. Sanford said. “We believe health information exchanges and electronic records can indeed improve healthcare outcomes by increasing efficiency, streamlining information and instilling a sense of accountability into a system that too often remains fragmented and overwhelmed by red tape. This Committee represents a small but meaningful step toward the long term goal of reducing medical mistakes – which cost the lives of 30 or more South Carolinians per year – as well as reducing the cost of healthcare services.”

Committee members will include the following officials, or their designees: President of the South Carolina Hospital Association; Chief Executive Officer of the South Carolina Office of Rural Health; President of the South Carolina Medical Association; Chief Executive Officer of the South Carolina Primary Health Care Association; President of the South Carolina Pharmacy Association; Director of the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services; Director of the Budget and Control Board’s Office of Research and Statistics; Commissioner of the Department of Health and Environmental Control; Chairman of the Board of the Lakelands Rural Health Network; President and Chief Executive Officer of Health Sciences South Carolina; and a consumer.

Topics: doctors, Governance, health care, health information, Health Information Exchange, healthcare providers, hospitals, internet, national exchange, online, patient care, quality of life, SCHIEX, South Carolina, technology, U.S., United States

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