Washington, D.C. — After listening to concerns from health care providers and hospital executives, Rep. David B. McKinley, P.E. (R-W.Va.) recently introduced a bill (H.R. 5537) to help hospitals communicate with each other, which would increase efficiency and improve quality of care.

The bill requires the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to study the communication between computer systems used by hospitals to store and access electronic health records.

“Over the past three and a half years we have met with hospitals, health care workers, patients and families and a common theme is the fact that medical records are not easily transferable between different hospital systems,” said McKinley. “With all the technology available to us in 2014, this should be a problem that can be solved.”

“Designing medical records systems that can talk to each other will increase access to care, lower health care costs, and allow for more effective coordination,” said McKinley.

“We live in an interconnected world where banking systems and other services are able to connect around the globe,” said McKinley. “Ensuring our health care system does the same is just common sense.”

McKinley’s bill calls for GAO to report to Congress and make recommendations on how to increase interoperability of hospital computer systems to store and access electronic health records.