NJ Blue plan invests $500K in med history tech for hospitals

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey has set aside $500,000 to help some of the hospitals in its network bring up electronic medical history technology. Early registrants for the program include Chilton Memorial Hospital of Pompton Plains, NJ, which will receive 85 percent of the costs of the technology--up to $40,000--for participating in the network. To roll out its part of the effort, Chilton will use technology vendor DrFirst's RcopiaAC system. During the remainder of 2008, as many as eight hospitals are expected to join the Blue plan's program. Amounts given to the various hospitals will vary.

Horizon believes that it is the first health plan in the U.S. to offer such a program. Even if that's true, however, it's unlikely to be alone for long. Health plans have a tremendous incentive to help hospitals avoid medication errors, which are costly, damaging and frequently, avoidable.

To learn more about this project:
- read this Healthcare IT News piece [1]

Related Articles:
Study: Bar codes may not fix medication mistakes [2]
Study: E-prescribing cuts med errors 66% [3]
Nursing home drug errors remain hidden [4]
Joint Commission issues warning on child med errors [5]