business
Kaiser HealthConnect project complete
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted March 22, 2010
After more than eight years and $4 billion, Kaiser Permanente announced that the implementation of its electronic medical record system is complete.
The Oakland, Calif.-based physician, hospital and health plan company says its HealthConnect system, considered the largest private EMR system in the world, is now completely online, with more than 8.6 million patients across nine states connected.
The organization started building the HealthConnect system after scrapping a previous EMR project for which more than $442 million was invested. The HealthConnect project was completed more than $2 billion over budget.
The company was recognized by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society after the announcement of the project's completion. HIMSS recognized 39 hospitals in 2009 for achieving the highest state of EMR implementation; 24 of those were Kaiser Permanente hospitals.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2010/03/22/bibf0322.htm.












