Presentation: Office of the National Coordinator Shop Floor Tour, Ted Eytan, MD

These were the words of Mark Snyder, MD, Associate Medical Director, Information Technology, Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group, as he demonstrated a new paradigm of information sharing using a simulated medical record, taking the record (represented by a notepad) out of his hands, and placing it in a member’s hands. This happened during a “process walk” that we set up to show the workflow of secure e-mail in a medical practice, at Kaiser Permanente’s West End Medical Center, in the heart of Washington, DC.

The visit came about because I was asked to provide information to the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) about Group Health Cooperative’s work in adopting secure e-mail as part of care across the State of Washington. Since I am a believer of Genchi Genbutsu through the work I have been doing in LEAN, I invited the group to “come and see for yourself,” and they did.

With assistance from the staff at Kaiser Permanente’s West End Medical Center, including Medical Center Chief Doug VanZoeren, MD, I presented the Group Health Health Profile, an electronic health risk appraisal linked to an electronic health record, along with data about adoption of our patient portal, MyGroupHealth. Mark Snyder followed with information about Kaiser Permanente’s HealthConnect project and associated personal health record, kp.org. He indicated that 100,000 of Kaiser Permanente Mid-Atlantic’s members have signed on to the system, giving it a steeper adoption curve than even Group Health as Mark pointed out, since it is has been on the scene for less time. It is now fully operational, though, and forging ahead with features like direct booking of primary care appointments.

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