HHS moves to hasten Gulf Coast use of e-health records

The Health and Human Services Department has entered into two agreements that aim to accelerate the use of electronic health records for the Gulf Coast areas that were affected by recent hurricanes.

Under the first agreement, the Southern Governors' Association will host a health information task force that will coordinate the planning for efforts to recover digital health records.

The second agreement is with the Louisiana Health and Hospitals Department, which will develop a prototype of a network to support e-health records that can be replicated throughout the region.

"Recent hurricanes in the Gulf Coast exposed up close the real vulnerabilities of the American healthcare system -- a system based upon paper, which in an instant was destroyed," HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt said in a statement. "The effect of these hurricanes has been to demonstrate the real need for health records that are both electronic and interoperable."