Regarding the letter, “Coordinated care is vital to patients”: Western Washington Medical Group is an independent medical group of 83 health care providers in Snohomish County, most of whom are on staff at Providence.

We believe that patients should be free to choose their health care. Drs. Hambleton and Yetman’s claim that these choices must be limited because of an electronic medical record is wrong.

No doctor anywhere should be without all of a patient’s medical records. Electronic medical records can easily communicate with each other to further quality patient care. WWMG has built connections with the electronic records of many medical groups and hospital systems. We have made repeated offers to build an interface with Providence over the past three years, including a letter we sent to Dr. Yetman on Feb. 22, 2013. He has not responded to that letter.

Such a connection between electronic medical records would cost each organization approximately $30,000. We have offered to fund our portion of that cost, but Providence has repeatedly declined, claiming it doesn’t have the resources for such an effort. With a $1 billion budget for electronic medical records, surely $30,000 is available to integrate with a medical group of 80 providers.

We have also offered to provide Providence with free log-in access to Western Washington Medical Group’s medical records so that any Providence physician could instantly access the records Drs. Hambleton and Yetman call a “matter of life and death” from any computer in their system. We agree that these records are vital to quality care. We champion full electronic medical record access for all patients and medical providers within our community. We ask Providence to do this as well without further delay, not just for their employed physicians but for all citizens of Snohomish County.

Electronic medical records open a new era of data transparency that enhances quality and promotes patient choice. Using electronic medical records as a competitive tool to force patients to abandon their current physician is unconscionable. Top quality care results from a free exchange between a patient and a doctor: not in a building, not in a medical group, certainly not in a medical record. Providence can do better. Health care consumers should demand it.

Jerome Tillinger, MBA, MHA

Chief Executive Officer

David Russian, MD, FCCP

President

Western Washington Medical Group