The New York Department of Health (DOH) and the public-private partnership New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC) on Tuesday submitted a plan to ONC outlining a proposal to spend $129 million in state and federal funds to build and implement a statewide medical records network.

The network is being touted by officials as the country's largest – connecting hundreds of hospitals, thousands of medical practitioners and up to 20 million patients a year. Once completed, New York doctors anywhere in the state will have instant access to critical medical records of every patient.

"Better information helps doctors do a better job," said David Whitlinger, executive director of NYeC. "This statewide network will empower healthcare providers by giving them access to a wealth of patient data that they didn't always have at their fingertips. While cutting edge technology plays a tremendous role in modern medicine, in many respects medical records are still stuck in the past. We look forward to helping create a system that will greatly improve the quality of medical care and therefore people's lives."

The proposed statewide network will link together several existing regional electronic medical record networks with new infrastructure and programming, and state agencies will set policies to govern the system's implementation and maintenance. Currently, healthcare providers can share some electronic records with certain neighboring medical institutions.

The Statewide Health Information Network for NY (SHIN-NY) will allow patients and healthcare providers to have immediate access to histories, prescriptions, test results, medical analysis and diagnoses, and more, anywhere in the state.

"Having this information can mean the difference between life and death," said Eugene Heslin, a practicing New York physician who serves on the Board of NYeC. Heslin says having quick access to patients' information such, as their medication history, can be life-saving in an emergency.

While several other states and the Veterans Administration have set up large networks for medical records, officials say New York's system will ultimately dwarf them when completed given the scope of the state's medical facilities. The proposal establishes a preliminary timeline for the implementation of many of the core services the network can provide – ranking them in priority – and foresees new services being added every several months between mid-2011 and 2014.  

"New York is once again leading the nation in healthcare initiatives that will provide better treatment to the millions of patients treated in the state every year," said New York State Department of Health Deputy Commissioner of Health Information Technology Transformation Rachel Block. "We feel it is our responsibility to help all patients and healthcare providers across the state have access to the same vital information that can help save lives. We look forward to working with NYeC and other state programs to create this network and establish rules that will make electronic medical records secure, accessible and helpful to the many stakeholders all around the state."