emergency room

EMS providers often treat patients with complicated medical histories yet have no access to relevant health data, such as hospital or out-patient records, which might provide information critical to patient care. EMS reports also are rarely integrated into hospital records, leaving specialists and other hospital staff unaware of how patients presented to EMS initially and what treatments they received prior to arriving at the emergency department...Earlier this year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a guidance letter that allows the use of Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) funds for expenditures related to electronically connecting Eligible Providers to other Medicaid providers, including EMS, to share health information.

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