Wisconsin Passes Law To Establish Statewide EHR Exchange System

On Tuesday, Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle (D) signed into law the WIRED for Health Act (AB 779), which will create an entity to oversee the establishment of a statewide electronic health record system, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports (Boulton, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 5/11).
Wisconsin is receiving $9.4 million through the 2009 federal economic stimulus package to plan and develop the statewide network.
The law will create a not-for-profit corporation to apply for additional federal funds to cover the cost of the system (AP/Lacrosse Tribune, 5/12).
At an event to mark the enactment of the bill, Doyle said the EHR network would allow health care providers to access patient medical data from other facilities throughout Wisconsin (Olds, WKBT, 5/11).
Possible Challenges
Officials noted that the project could face challenges in:
Establishing interoperability standards for EHRs;
Ensuring the privacy and security of patient data; and
Reining in additional costs (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 5/11).

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