In these days of "less and less costs more and more health care" it's hard to imagine that one piece of legislation can both save lives and save health care dollars, but that's what we passed in the Kentucky Senate, with unanimous bipartisan support.

Senate Bill 2 requires health care to enter the computer age, something that, oddly enough, hasn't really happened yet.

The bill to bring health care into the computer age, saving both lives and money, won unanimous, bipartisan support in the House Wednesday. The bill is now on its way to Governor Ernie Fletcher's desk.

Rep. Steve Nunn, R-Glasgow, commended Mongiardo for his perseverance. "He's been working on this bill for four years," Nunn said. "The House has passed it four times. We have a great moment in Kentucky history on the horizon. This bill creates the opportunity to save health care dollars and lives."

While computers have certainly become part of our medical care, there is no health care information superhighway that speeds comprehensive information on an individual patient or the latest research on his condition to his physician.

Our health care delivery system is broken, still lumbering along with a largely paper-based system, particularly in terms of patient information. Information is not shared among physicians, wasting important time and making it much, much easier to make mistakes.

Senate Bill 2, legislation I've been working on for four years, would create that health care superhighway, an electronic health network in Kentucky that would give a physician access to a patient's medical history, while strongly protecting the patient's confidentiality and privacy. Furthermore, while considering a patient's treatment options, the network would offer physicians access to the latest research and newest techniques from the country's best medical facilities.

How does a health information network save lives? By cutting down on medical errors inherent in an antiquated paper-based medical records system. Medical errors account for as many as 100,000 deaths in this country every year, according to research by the Institute of Medicine. Polls show that 42 percent of Americans have either personally experienced a medical error, or have had a family member who experienced such an error.

For example, each year 770,000 adverse drug interactions occur because of inadequate information about a patient's medication history. These incidents result in injury, hospitalization and even death. In study after study, computerization has been demonstrated to help physicians avoid these errors. The Veterans Administration has demonstrated up to an 87 percent reduction in medication errors using computers.

Medical errors translate into higher costs through additional care and more medical malpractice claims. Studies demonstrate that computerization results in significant cost savings because of fewer errors and less duplication of effort. Health care becomes more efficient. Cost savings prompted a group of Fortune 500 companies to contract only with hospitals that have computerized physician order entry.

Think about the speed, convenience and savings computers have brought to banking or even the grocery store check-out. Consider the information resources available on the Internet. Imagine how harnessing the power of computers could improve your individual health care.

Senate Bill 2 puts Kentucky on the cutting edge of a national trend. The need for a national health information network has recently gotten the attention of President Bush. With the passage of Senate Bill 2, supported by Senate President David Williams, Kentucky has the opportunity to leap ahead of other states and develop a system that could ultimately serve as the backbone of the national health information network.

Making Kentucky the center of the nation's health information network translates into high-tech, high-paying jobs for our citizens. The health care industry is the largest industry in the country, and it is still paper-based. The inevitable transformation to computers will be the largest market this country has ever seen. If Kentucky takes the lead we will reap huge economic benefits in job development, expansion of research facilities and creation of new companies.

Senate Bill 2, developed with input from the health care industry and university representatives, envisions the expansion of the health technology centers at the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville. The goal is to develop a first-of-its-kind federal research center, which will help federal and state governments learn new ways to improve quality and reduce costs in health care, the fastest-growing segment of everyone's budget and one of the nation's biggest consumers of tax dollars.

This research center would use our brightest minds to develop affordable, high quality health care. It would be an incubator for new health information technology companies. This center would move Kentucky forward as the national leader in health information science.

We can make Kentucky the crossroads where health care, information technology and research meet.

This bill has an emergency clause that makes it immediately effective, and there's a good reason for it. Kentucky can't wait another day for legislation that saves both lives and health care dollars.

Senator Daniel Mongiardo, the only practicing physician in the legislature, represents Perry, Leslie, Harlan and Bell counties.