A more efficient health care system will cost less in the long term, but only after some hurdles are cleared in the short term — including footing the up-front bills for making the enormous upgrades required.

Principal among these is the establishment of a Health Information Technology network, a national database of medical records enabling providers to have ready access to charts, prescription data and other facts about the health of the patients in front of them.

That network will be years in the building, but some important links in the chain will be forged through grants using the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. Hawaii, fortunately, has received one of 18 grants of this stimulus money, enabling critical first steps.

The $750,000 went to the Hawaii Primary Care Association, which represents community health centers that generally serve low-income and uninsured people across the state. These clinics — a lifeline especially for the Islands' remote, rural areas — would be hard-pressed to make this investment otherwise.

And having electronic health records will enable the centers to establish the patient-centered "home" model of health care. Sharing records readily will enable the patient's primary doctor to coordinate care more effectively, which leads to better outcomes at with less waste and duplication of procedures.

To address concerns about data theft, state-of-the-art technology must be used to secure these digitized records. Once that's in place, there's every reason to encourage making more such investments here, advancing Hawaii toward 21st-century standards of care.