Building a network on a legacy of teamwork.

The nine hospitals that belong to the Hospital Consortium of Greater Rochester have a long history of working together to control health care costs in this upstate New York community. Now they're focusing on creating an electronic health information network. The project has the support of major local employers, which want to keep unnecessary care to a minimum to reduce costs. Electronic networking also will support longstanding efforts in Rochester to ensure that hospitals don't needlessly duplicate services. And the network will allow providers to more easily draw on a treasure trove of information already stored in clinical data bases.