New York Gov. Paterson Announces $105M in Grants for Statewide Electronic Health Record System
New York Gov. David Paterson (D) on Friday announced $105 million in grants to develop a statewide electronic health record system, the AP/New York Post reports. Paterson said that the state should develop security measures to protect patient privacy. Richard Daines, the state's health commissioner, said that the lack of such records results in avoidable errors, increases costs and contributes to patient dissatisfaction. He said the EHR grants are part of an overhaul of the state's health care system.
The federal and state grants will go to 19 projects, including $5.2 million for the Western New York Clinical Information Exchange and $12.7 million for the Brooklyn Health Information Exchange. "We estimated 55% of the patients in the state will have some direct benefit," Daines said (AP/New York Post, 3/29).
