Broadlawns Medical Center in Des Moines and University of Iowa Health Care (UIHC) in Iowa City recently became among the first hospitals in the nation to begin exchanging electronic medical records, one of the cost-saving objectives of the federal health-care overhaul enacted in March 2010.

The two health systems participate in IowaCare, a program in which Broadlawns patients are seen by specialists at UIHC for care that is not offered at Broadlawns. After receiving treatment at UIHC, the patients return to Broadlawns for continuing medical care.

With this initiative, Broadlawns and UIHC have completed six of seven stages of electronic medical record adoption that are set by the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS). Mercy Medical Center – North Iowa in Mason City has also reached Stage 6.

Kyle Hansen, information technology project manager for Broadlawns, said securing physician involvement was critical to successfully switching to electronic medical records. One of the earliest strategies at Broadlawns was to recruit physician “super-users,” who convinced their peers of the advantages of using electronic health records. Hansen estimated that 80 percent of the doctors at Broadlawns now enter their orders electronically.

Hansen anticipates that Broadlawns will complete the final stage, elimination of paper records for patient care, by this summer.