AtlantiCare (Egg Harbor Township, N.J.) and Heartland Health (St. Joseph, Mo.) were awarded the 2009 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Awards for their organizational innovation and performance excellence. Not surprisingly, one of the components of both of their successful programs is healthcare IT. Also not surprisingly, in light of the HITECH Act's grants, both healthcare systems have EMRs and health information exchange (HIE).

AtlantiCare is able to share patient data it collects from its EMR through its Connected Community Health Information Exchange. Heartland Health aggregates data from its EMR system into its Lewis and Clark Information Exchange (LACIE) program, enabling it to create a lifetime medical record for patients and deliver a comprehensive view of the patient to healthcare providers no matter where care is being delivered.

While I still believe that having an EMR is valuable in and of itself to a healthcare system, being able to share the data expands the clinical and financial benefits and the number of patients and providers who derive value from the HIE.

What's great about these impressive implementations is that they serve as models for the rest of the industry. Indeed, David Tilton, AtlantiCare's CEO, said that he looked forward to mentoring other healthcare systems.

Regardless of similarities or differences, healthcare systems who are in the early stages of implementing health IT systems should reach out to both these award-winning hospitals.