Here's a clinical scenario that is familiar to many doctors, according to Dr. Paul Abramson, who is medical director of the My Doctor Medical Group. An elderly man arrives at California Pacific Medical Center's emergency department in San Francisco at 11 p.m. on a Saturday by ambulance, unconscious and severely ill. A neighbor had called 911 after he failed to answer the phone or door. No friends or relatives are available, and the man has never visited this emergency department before.The scenario Abramson paints would be entirely different if a health information exchange could provide information on the patient's previous encounters with the healthcare system. Hospital Impact