The 370 physicians with Houston's Kelsey-Seybold Clinic have joined with the more than 3,200 doctors already linked up with the Greater Houston Healthconnect health information exchange.

“Our goal is to deliver the most advanced medical care with personalized attention,” Dr. Spencer Berthelsen, Kelsey-Seybold board chairman (PDF), said in a news release. “Greater Houston Healthconnect provides a tool for enhancing the continuity of care we so highly value in our organization.”

Kelsey-Seybold, which recently became the first accountable care organization accredited by the National Committee for Quality Assurance, has 20 clinics in five counties. Greater Houston Healthconnect, formerly known as the Greater Houston Health Information Exchange, includes physicians and hospitals sharing secured electronic patient records across a 20-county region in Southeast Texas. The 16 hospitals under contract and participating in the exchange are said to account for 24% of the area’s total discharges and emergency department visits.

“We truly value Kelsey-Seybold’s participation as a leader in the medical community,” Dr. Bernard Harris Jr., vice chairman of the Healthconnect board, said in the release. “Their presence will help us to accelerate adoption among other major group practices and create considerable momentum. Our goal is to connect at least 50% of all physicians in our service area by 2017.”

Similarly, last week, seven Denver-area hospitals in Nashville-based HCA’s HealthOne network announced they were joining the Colorado Regional Health Information Organization.