A nonprofit organization that promotes health care for underserved Washington residents will install networked medical-records systems in six safety-net clinics.

The D.C. Primary Care Association, with $5 million in city government funding, is undertaking the project as part of its D.C. Medical Homes initiative, an effort to provide low-income city residents with consistent, coordinated care, including preventive care. The idea is to give residents a place where their medical histories are known and where they can obtain treatment before health problems escalate into emergencies.

"Health information technology is a crucial foundation for medical homes," according to a recent column by Commonwealth Fund President Karen Davis and the fund's executive vice president, Dr. Stephen Schoenbaum.

With an e-medical records system, records are readily available to doctors, who also get reminders of routine tests and procedures that are due in each case. The information can follow the patient from clinic to clinic, as needed.

The system the association chose, eClinicalWorks, also supports practice management ? billing, scheduling and eligibility checks, among other functions.

The association also will aggregate information about city residents' health, looking for trends, emerging health issues and evidence of the quality of care delivered at the clinics.

Besides linking with Medicaid and other payers, the system eventually could become part of a larger health information exchange that could serve hospitals and other Washington-area health providers.

Other aspects of the D.C. Medical Homes initiative include expansion of clinic buildings, new and better equipment, and payment for preventive-care services rendered to low-income city residents.