Each institution will issue smart cards that integrate the patient's identity data with essential health information that can be quickly accessed and routinely updated by health care professionals who are part of the regional smart card network.

The other hospitals taking part in the pilot include Cabrini Medical Center, Englewood Hospital, North General Hospital, Queens Hospital, St. John's Riverside Hospital and Settlement Health. Eventually, 45 affiliated and related health care facilities in the area will be linked by the smart card initiative.

The regional smart card network will enable portability of patient health care data and help reduce medical errors caused by misinformation or a lack of patient data, said Jack Nelson, CIO at Mount Sinai. "Right now, there's a lot of interest to create a national hospital network" that would make health care information more broadly accessible to providers and patients, he said.

The smart card initiative is one way of making such information portable without investing in the infrastructure needed for a connected health care network, he said. "If you think about it, you need the same kind of infrastructure that was needed in the '70's and the 80's for ATM cash machines" to deploy a nationwide connected health network. But the hospitals involved in the smart card program need only card readers and the associated software for them, he said.

Initially, Mount Sinai will use the patient smart cards for reliable identification of patients and for quick access to medical histories in the emergency room, Nelson said.