Health care providers in Mississippi are converting to electronic medical records as required by federal Health Care Reform. Some state providers, however, have a head start.

After Hurricane Katrina, the State Health Information Exchange was established to set up an electronic health care records system in the six coastal counties, ensuring that medical records would never be lost in storms again.

James S. McIlwain, MD, serves as co-chair of the Mississippi Healthcare Information Technology Infrastructure Task Force and feels the state is ready to move forward with this federal mandate. He says the program on the Coast will be used as a statewide platform.

"We want to try to enhance the quality of care in our state and this is one way to do it. With electronic records, our physicians can make better decisions," he said. "With the exchange on the Coast, we got ahead of the rest of the country. It has been successful and we get rave reviews on it."

The state received $10.3 million in federal funds to develop the strategy. Once federal approval is received, McIlwain said the program will start statewide.

As for expenses to individual healthcare providers, he says federal funding will help with the initial connections but won't be a tremendous help to everyone. "It's like paying for utilities," he added. "Those who use it will pay for it. With the funding we have, we'll be able to connect everybody; that is physicians, hospitals and nurse practitioners. We're trying to keep it as cheap as possible."

He estimates the cost to a small medical clinic will be from $20,000 to $25,000 and notes some clinics are merging to reduce costs. In addition to funds received by the state for implementing the program, McIlwain points out that other incentive funds are available through Medicaid and Medicare.

The Delta Health Alliance was awarded a grant of $14.4 million which will pay for a number of primary care physicians in that area to be connected to the exchange.

North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo was making the transition before the federal mandate, according to Steve Altmiller, president.

"We don't need a stick to be incentivized to improve patient safety. We would do it without the federal mandate," he said. "We see a lot of upside in reducing redundancy, improving patient safety and being able to document standard operating processes."

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