Soon, when an asthmatic student ends up in a Bethlehem Area School District nurse's office, the student's entire medical history will be a few computer clicks away. <\/p>\n
The school board has approved joining a regional partnership that would make the electronic medical records of Bethlehem and Allentown School District readily available to emergency room doctors and nurses alike, Superintendent Joseph Roy said. <\/p>\n
Allentown has to take its own actions to join. <\/p>\n
The Children's Care Alliance is the product of a partnership between the districts and Lehigh Valley Health Network, St. Luke's Hospital and Health Network, Sacred Heart Health Systems and Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network.<\/p>\n
Lehigh Valley pitched the pediatric health information exchange to the Bethlehem board in October. At that time, network officials said the three-phase project was expected to cost more than $2.3 million and take two and a half to three years to finish. <\/p>\n
Lehigh Valley already has more than $1 million available for the first two phases through grants and in-kind donations, officials said. It is funding the project through grants and assumes all responsibility for costs. <\/p>\n
Roy said Bethlehem will continue to work with alliance partners on technical and implementation issues. <\/p>\n
Organizers envision a system where an asthmatic student ends up in a Lehigh Valley Hospital emergency room and doctors have his entire medical history. If he ends up in St. Luke's a few days later, doctors will know what to do to aggressively treat him and keep him out of the hospital, officials said in October. <\/p>\n
Officials previously said the first phase would create a secure electronic medical record database for school districts and clinics to use and share information. The database will include any student health information districts must keep on file.<\/p>\n
The second phase will tie the school medical records in with the Lehigh Valley Health Network physician portal. The final phase is estimated to cost $1.3 million and will build a pediatric regional health information exchange by tapping into the other hospitals medical records. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Read more here: <\/p>\n
Bethlehem Area School District agrees to join electronic medical record exchange<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Soon, when an asthmatic student ends up in a Bethlehem Area School District nurse's office, the student's entire medical history will be a few computer clicks away. The school board has approved joining a regional partnership that would make the electronic medical records of Bethlehem and Allentown School District readily available to emergency room doctors and nurses alike, Superintendent Joseph Roy said. Continue reading