MN group plans 18-county EHR network

A nonprofit group in Minnesota is joining with a connectivity vendor to develop a network of interoperable electronic health records across 18 counties in the northeastern part of the state.

The Community Health Information Collaborative, which includes 400 medical provider organizations, has contracted with Minneapolis-based MEDNET to connect hospitals, physician practices, nursing homes, public health departments and emergency response personnel in a regional health information organization. The collaborative will ultimately be part of the planned Nationwide Health Information Network, BusinessNorth reports.

The regional network, serving an area with some 650,000 people, will start with an unspecified EMR, and eventually expand to include electronic referral, insurance pre-authorization and public health reporting, enabled by MEDNET's patient locator technology.

For details on the Community Health Information Collaborative:
- read the BusinessNorth story