Soon, when an asthmatic student ends up in a Bethlehem Area School District nurse's office, the student's entire medical history will be a few computer clicks away.

The school board has approved joining a regional partnership that would make the electronic medical records of Bethlehem and Allentown School District readily available to emergency room doctors and nurses alike, Superintendent Joseph Roy said.

Allentown has to take its own actions to join.

The Children's Care Alliance is the product of a partnership between the districts and Lehigh Valley Health Network, St. Luke's Hospital and Health Network, Sacred Heart Health Systems and Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network.

Lehigh Valley pitched the pediatric health information exchange to the Bethlehem board in October. At that time, network officials said the three-phase project was expected to cost more than $2.3 million and take two and a half to three years to finish.

Lehigh Valley already has more than $1 million available for the first two phases through grants and in-kind donations, officials said. It is funding the project through grants and assumes all responsibility for costs.

Roy said Bethlehem will continue to work with alliance partners on technical and implementation issues.

Organizers envision a system where an asthmatic student ends up in a Lehigh Valley Hospital emergency room and doctors have his entire medical history. If he ends up in St. Luke's a few days later, doctors will know what to do to aggressively treat him and keep him out of the hospital, officials said in October.

Officials previously said the first phase would create a secure electronic medical record database for school districts and clinics to use and share information. The database will include any student health information districts must keep on file.

The second phase will tie the school medical records in with the Lehigh Valley Health Network physician portal. The final phase is estimated to cost $1.3 million and will build a pediatric regional health information exchange by tapping into the other hospitals medical records.

Read more here:

Bethlehem Area School District agrees to join electronic medical record exchange