The President’s Health Information Technology Plan

President George W. Bush 4.26.04

Transforming Health Care: The Presidents Health Information Technology Plan

By computerizing health records, we can avoid dangerous medical mistakes, reduce costs, and improve care.

—President George W. Bush, State of the Union Address, January 20, 2004

President Bush has outlined a plan to ensure that most Americans have electronic health records within the next 10 years. The President believes that better health information technology is essential to his vision of a health care system that puts the needs and the values of the patient first and gives patients information they need to make clinical and economic decisions—in consultation with dedicated health care professionals.

The Presidents Health Information Technology Plan will address longstanding problems of preventable errors, uneven quality, and rising costs in the Nations health care system.

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Creating a New, Sub–Cabinet Level Position of National Health Information Technology Coordinator. The President announced that he is creating a new sub-Cabinet level post at HHS, to provide national leadership and coordination necessary to achieve his 10-year goal. The individual will report directly to the HHS Secretary, and will be charged by the President with: Guiding ongoing work on health information standards and working to identify and implement the various steps needed to support and encourage health information technology in the public and private health care delivery systems.

Coordinating partnerships between government agencies and private sector stakeholders to speed the adoption of health information technology.