ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – May 14, 2012 – Mosaica Partners, a nationally recognized health information consulting and advisory firm, has been selected to assist the State of Arizona in updating its health information exchange (HIE) strategic and operations plans.

Arizona selected Mosaica Partners for the firm’s HIE expertise, knowledge of the State HIE Collaborative Agreement Program (SHIECAP) and prior experience in working with the state. Previously, Mosaica Partners assisted Arizona in developing a state grant program to support the planning of regional health information organizations (RHIOs) and assisted each of the six grant awardees during their planning process. The firm also wrote the State of Arizona’s RHIO Formation Guide.

“Arizona is making significant progress in enabling statewide exchange of health information, and it’s important that the strategic and operational plans accurately reflect that activity,” said Laura Kolkman, RN, MS, FHIMSS, president of Mosaica Partners. “We’re honored that Arizona has chosen us to help with this important step, and it’s a pleasure to be working with the state once again.”

The state’s initial plans, which outlined Arizona’s approach to utilizing $9.3 million in federal funds to enable the exchange of health information within the state, were submitted to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and subsequently approved in March 2011 by the Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology (ONC). Under the terms of SHIECAP, Arizona and other participants must submit annual HIE plan updates to HHS for approval.

The updated plans will form the basis for coordinating and communicating Arizona’s progress in adopting health information technology and facilitating information exchange with the federal government, various state agencies, healthcare providers throughout the state and consumers.

In addition to having deep experience in HIE planning, formation and operations, Kolkman and Bob Brown, Mosaica’s vice president of professional services, co-authored The Health Information Exchange Formation Guide: The Authoritative Guide for Planning and Forming an HIE in Your State, Region, or Community. The book, considered by many to be the essential guide to HIE planning, was named 2011 Book of the Year by the Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS). The guide is available for purchase in the HIMSS online store and as a HIMSS eBook.

About Mosaica Partners

Mosaica Partners (www.mosaicapartners.com) is a nationally recognized management consulting and advisory firm providing strategy, business planning, development and process optimization services related to health information exchange (HIE). Mosaica provides its services to the federal government, states, regions, communities, HIE/HIT vendors and numerous organizations that collect, manage and share health information.

St. Louis (April 19, 2012) – Amerinet Inc., a leading national healthcare solutions organization, announces a new Executive Resources agreement with IVANS, Inc. for health information exchange and electronic audit documentation solutions.

IVANS AuditDocs™, is a software solution for fast, secure, electronic submission of Medicare audit documentation requests.

• Reduce risk and ensure audit deadlines are met by uploading and sending medical records electronically to review contractors via HIPAA-compliant transmission
• Verify documents were sent and received through a robust dashboard that provides detailed document tracking, transactions history and archiving
• Decrease expenses by cutting down on printing and shipping costs and pay only for the document submission services that are used
• Access AuditDocs via IVANS LIME HIE plan or integrate the solution into an existing electronic medical record (EMR), Practice Management or RAC Management solution

IVANS is currently the only CMS approved Health Information handler (HIH) to offer this type of compliance solution to Amerinet members through an Executive Resources agreement.

This contract is effective through February 28, 2015.

Latest report from NeHC lays out a roadmap for accelerating widespread health information exchange
by leveraging nationally-recognized technology standards and learning from HIE pioneers

Washington, DC (April 2, 2012) – National eHealth Collaborative (NeHC) today released the Health Information Exchange Roadmap: The Landscape and a Path Forward.  This Roadmap offers stakeholders a clear picture of efforts being undertaken by both the public and private sectors to create and implement the building blocks for widespread deployment of interoperable HIE.  It also provides an understanding of how these diverse approaches fit together into a cohesive strategy for nationwide HIE and suggests a four phase roadmap to help HIE initiatives make progress and become sustainable.

“In this time of unprecedented investment, growth and innovation, achieving widespread HIE is a worthy goal because of its many benefits to patient care,” said NeHC CEO Kate Berry.  “A great deal of progress is being made today yet ongoing challenges remain.  We hope this HIE Roadmap helps to clarify options, motivate action and accelerate success for those stakeholders who believe that HIE is a necessary foundation for healthcare transformation.”

Health Information Exchange Roadmap: The Landscape and a Path Forward covers the following major topics in detail:

1)      ONC-led efforts to develop nationally-recognized standards that can be leveraged by local HIE initiatives and how those standards work in harmony with local efforts to create a cohesive strategy for market-driven interoperability;

2)      Examples of where national standards are currently being leveraged by diverse market based initiatives to provide innovative HIE functionality and services; and

3)      A roadmap of the major steps communities can follow to accelerate progress toward the realization of a widespread and successful deployment of interoperable EHRs, connected health IT tools and real time information sharing through HIE.

“ONC has been a significant catalyst in propelling the nation toward the goal of standardized technical interoperability between electronic health records and information sharing through health information exchange,” said Kevin Hutchinson, member of the HIT Standards Committee and chair of the NeHC Board of Directors.  “As a member of the HIT Standards Committee, I can attest first-hand to the incredible difference ONC has made to encourage and enable widespread HIE by bringing the community directly into the standards development process.”

“Making progress to increase the specificity of standards is important to growing interoperable health information exchange.  ONC is committed to helping the nation improve health and healthcare through the use of IT and information exchange.  One of the ways we can do that is by developing and harmonizing a portfolio of standards, services and policies that will enable the secure exchange of health information over the Internet,” said Doug Fridsma, MD, PhD, Director of the Office of Standards and Interoperability at ONC.  “The success of this work is only possible because of the dedicated individuals that volunteer their expertise and countless hours of their time to participate in the Standards & Interoperability Framework initiatives, so that the building blocks are in place for interoperable HIE to become a standard of care.”

The HIE Roadmap includes multiple examples of leading HIE-enabling organizations that are leveraging nationally-recognized HIE standards to improve patient care, achieve efficiencies and realize cost savings.

“The availability of national standards is a critical foundation for HIE.  With this in place, HealthBridge is able to focus on connecting our customers to better information that brings value, improves patient care and positions them for success in a changing environment,” said Keith Hepp, Interim Chief Executive Officer, HealthBridge.

The third section of the HIE Roadmap suggests a four phase process for making progress toward full HIE:  (1) HIE objectives and vision, (2) market assessment, (3) strategy development and (4) strategy implementation.  These phases and the steps within them are intended to help all healthcare organizations seeking to use HIE to improve patient care, regardless of where they may be on the continuum that leads to full interoperability and widespread HIE.

“This Roadmap synthesizes a great deal of valuable information that may be helpful for many types of organizations either directly involved with HIE or enabling HIE,” said Michael Matthews, CEO, MedVirginia. “As a public-private partnership with multi-stakeholder engagement, NeHC is well positioned to convene stakeholders to tackle ongoing HIE challenges and encourage consensus on best practices that can be widely disseminated.”

NeHC consulted with many stakeholders to validate its belief that there was a need for this type of document designed to help stakeholders understand the current landscape and to chart a path forward for those actively working to advance HIE.  More than 60 experts and renowned HIE thought leaders directly provided advice and input into the final HIE Roadmap.  A common theme heard through the expert feedback was that challenges remain and there is a need for a collaborative process to tackle remaining challenges.

The release of the HIE Roadmap will kick off the launch of NeHC’s new HIE Learning Network.  This will include a series of workgroups to build consensus on best practices that can bring value by addressing some of the ongoing HIE challenges.  NeHC will begin this process by seeking feedback from all interested stakeholders on the most important issues to tackle.  Based on feedback to date, initial topics for these workgroups may include:

• Business models for financial sustainability
• Measures of success
• Best practices for prioritizing and phasing implementation of HIE services
• Stakeholder engagement and governance best practices
• Best practices for evaluating and selecting technology solutions
• Addressing variations in implementation of interoperability standards
• Strategies and value propositions for consumer engagement
• Patient consent models and best practices
• Best practices for patient matching
• Secondary uses of data opportunities and best practices
• Payer and employer engagement in HIE
• Role and function of HIE in support of accountable care

“NeHC is very grateful to the many experts and industry leaders who contributed their insight and experience to our HIE Roadmap and who have encouraged the next phase of NeHC’s work on HIE.   As a neutral public-private partnership, our contributors consider NeHC to be ideally suited to serve as the convener of a new collaborative network dedicated to continuous improvement and learning on HIE.  We are excited to be launching the HIE Learning Network, which we hope over time will make a difference in all of our lives as patients and consumers of healthcare,” said Berry.

NeHC invites stakeholders to help NeHC gather and prioritize issues for inaugural HIE Learning Network workgroups and to sign up to participate.  Stakeholders can download Health Information Exchange Roadmap: The Landscape and a Path Forward, volunteer their opinions on key issues and commit to joining an HIE Learning Network workgroup at www.nationalehealth.org/hie-roadmap.

About National eHealth Collaborative

National eHealth Collaborative (NeHC) is a public-private partnership focused on accelerating progress toward widespread, secure and interoperable nationwide health information exchange to improve health and healthcare. NeHC’s neutrality and diverse multi-stakeholder participation provides a unique platform for collaboration. NeHC educates, connects, and encourages healthcare stakeholders to advance health information technology and health information exchange nationwide through its NeHC University web-based education program, its Consumer Consortium on eHealth, its support of the Nationwide Health Information Network Exchange, its collaborative online community and its ongoing study of leading health information exchanges.

National eHealth Collaborative is a cooperative agreement partner of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Authored by executives from Mosaica Partners, a nationally recognized HIE consulting firm, the award-winning book is considered the essential guide to HIE formation and planning

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – March 21, 2012 – The Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS) has named The Health Information Exchange Formation Guide its 2011 Book of the Year.

The book and its co-authors, well-known health information consultants Laura Kolkman, RN, MS, FHIMSS and Bob Brown of Mosaica Partners, were honored on Feb. 23 at the HIMSS Awards Banquet, part of the 2012 Annual HIMSS Conference and Exhibition.

“Each year, the HIMSS Book of the Year award recognizes a book that offers outstanding practical guidance and/or strategic insight for healthcare information and management systems professionals,” said Fran Perveiler, vice president of communications, HIMSS. “Congratulations to authors Laura Kolkman and Bob Brown, winners of the 2011 HIMSS Book of the Year Award for their book, The Health Information Exchange Formation Guide: The Authoritative Guide for Planning and Forming an HIE in Your State, Region, or Community.”

Published by HIMSS in February 2011, The Health Information Exchange Formation Guide has received national acclaim for its practical approach to forming state-, regional- or community-based HIE organizations. The book leverages the insights Kolkman and Brown gleaned from their work with clients, as well as from extensive research and interviews with recognized HIE pioneers.  It provides the knowledge and tools that emerging HIE initiatives need to develop a framework for long-term sustainability.

“HIEs play a significant role in ACOs and new emerging care models and are a catalyst for transforming the nation’s healthcare system,” said Kolkman. “The problem is that many organizations and individuals do not know where to begin when planning an HIE. This book, based on our proven HIE Formation Methodology, gets them on the right path.”

“Over the past decade, we have learned about HIEs through the successes and failures of the front runners in exchange initiatives,” Brown added. “By applying these lessons, emerging HIEs can dramatically increase their odds of success, and establish their role in improving the overall efficiency of the healthcare delivery process, enhancing patient outcomes and significantly lowering costs.”

The HIE Formation Guide has garnered industry-wide praise for its structured approach that incorporates leading practices in the planning, formation and operational stages of HIE initiatives. In addition to a high-level history of HIE and in-depth discussion of its importance and role in transforming healthcare, the book includes a step-by-step guide, numerous case studies, examples, checklists and references.

“The Health Information Exchange Formation Guide provides an excellent and diverse grouping of ‘pearls’ from recognized leaders within our industry,” said Dick Thompson, CEO of Grand Junction, Colo.-based Quality Health Network. “I recommend it for nascent as well as more mature organizations, since one never knows where one may find a pearl of wisdom that is applicable to a specific business problem.”

Adds MedVirginia CEO Michael Matthews: “This is an exciting and extremely critical time for health information exchange. The Health Information Exchange Formation Guide provides practical, real-world guidance on important issues facing HIEs today.”

“The Health Information Exchange Formation Guide is an excellent resource for professionals and executives that are starting, developing or implementing HIE networks,” said Jeff Blair, director of health informatics at LCF Research, New Mexico Health Information Collaborative. “The Guide is so well-organized that it can be used as a comprehensive textbook, a reference to relevant case studies, or a quick reference guide to specific HIE topics. “

The Health Information Exchange Formation Guide is available for purchase in the HIMSS online store and as a HIMSS eBook. For more information, including the table of contents and chapter summaries, helpful downloadable figures and checklists, visit www.himss.org/hieformationguide.

About Mosaica Partners

Based in the Tampa Bay, Fla. region, Mosaica Partners (www.mosaicapartners.com) is a nationally recognized management consulting firm providing strategy, business planning, development and process optimization services related to health information exchange. Mosaica provides its services to the federal government, states, regions and communities as well as public and private companies with interests in healthcare informatics and health information exchange. In addition, Mosaica provides advisory services to hardware and software firms that are interested, or actively involved, in the health informatics or HIE market space.

Washington, DC (February 27, 2012) – National eHealth Collaborative (NeHC) today widely released the results of the 2012 NeHC Stakeholder Survey, featuring responses related to health information exchange, consumer engagement and other NeHC programs. NeHC previewed the results at HIMSS12 during its stakeholder meet-up and other strategic meetings.

Coming on the heels of the release of the proposed rule for meaningful use Stage 2, survey results provide insights into stakeholder perceptions related to barriers to health information exchange (HIE) and the importance of consumer engagement to transforming healthcare, which relate to some of the core measures that physicians and hospitals must meet in order to be eligible for Stage 2 meaningful use incentives. Stakeholders believe that the most important benefits of HIE include care coordination, ensuring that patients and providers have the right information available when needed to support patient care, and improving quality and efficiency. In addition, stakeholders believe that consumer engagement will be very important or important to transforming healthcare and achieving better outcomes.

“It is both interesting and enlightening to understand what stakeholders are thinking related to core strategic priorities for NeHC including education, HIE, and consumer engagement,” said NeHC CEO Kate Berry. “This type of information can help inform our programs to ensure we emphasize the areas of greatest need to encourage progress toward widespread deployment of HIT and HIE to improve patient care.”

Highlights from the survey are included below:

• “What are the most important benefits of health information exchange?” (Respondents were asked to select three)
• 73% – Better care coordination
• 65% – Providers and patients have the right information available when needed
• 39% – Improved efficiency
• 37% – Improved quality

• “What are the biggest challenges to achieving widespread health information exchange?” (Respondents were asked to select three)
• 61% – Funding and sustainability
• 53% – Interoperability standards
• 46% – Provider adoption
• 46% – Disparate electronic medical record systems
• 34% – Privacy and security

• “How important is patient/consumer engagement to transforming healthcare?”
• 95% – Very important or Important
• 5% – Somewhat important

• “What Health IT topics are of greatest interest to you?”
  (Respondents were asked to select all that apply)
• 60% – Interoperability standards
• 57% – Meaningful use
• 51% – Examples of HIE
• 49% – Health IT policy updates
• 49% – Healthcare reform
• 44% – Privacy and security

For a full reporting of the top survey results visit: http://www.nationalehealth.org/ckfinder/userfiles/files/2012%20NeHC%20Stakeholder%20Survey%20Results%20FINAL.pdf.

NeHC conducted this survey from February 13-17. The questionnaire was distributed to over 7,000 stakeholders with a response rate of 3 percent.

NeHC intends to use survey results and additional stakeholder feedback to inform its continued work with HIE, consumer engagement through the Consumer Consortium on eHealth, and with planning future NeHC University education programs.

About National eHealth Collaborative

National eHealth Collaborative (NeHC) is a public-private partnership focused on accelerating progress toward widespread, secure and interoperable nationwide health information exchange to improve health and healthcare. NeHC’s neutrality and diverse multi-stakeholder participation provides a unique platform for collaboration. NeHC educates, connects, and encourages healthcare stakeholders to advance health information technology and health information exchange nationwide through its NeHC University web-based education program, its Consumer Consortium on eHealth, its support of the Nationwide Health Information Network Exchange, its collaborative online community and its ongoing study of leading health information exchanges.

National eHealth Collaborative is a cooperative agreement partner of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Covisint Technology Enables Trenton Health Team to Establish ACO Model for Other Urban Regions to Follow

LAS VEGAS–February 21, 2012–Covisint, a Compuware (Nasdaq: CPWR) company, today announced that Trenton Health Team (THT) has selected Covisint as its Health Information Exchange. Covisint will enable THT to provide integrated care coordination for its most vulnerable residents, as well as help THT improve and track health quality outcomes.

Challenges facing some urban health systems include coping with poverty, homelessness, lack of integrated primary care access and inadequate health insurance coverage. These factors lead to increased utilization of local emergency departments (for non-emergency reasons) and escalating healthcare costs.

“Trenton Health Team needed a solution providing a high level of security, interoperability and data warehouse/data analysis tools to help us improve health outcomes and reduce costs system-wide,” said Dr. Ruth Perry, Executive Director for Trenton Health Team. “Covisint will drive a positive and transformative culture change in the way healthcare is delivered within THT. This will lead to better health outcomes for our patients and a better patient and provider experience.”

Covisint enhanced THT’s community-wide clinical care coordination, data sharing and utilization efforts, positioning THT to become an Accountable Care Organization (ACO). Covisint will provide THT with performance- and quality-based metrics in conjunction with robust data analytics to improve the city’s health outcomes and manage integrated care delivery.

“Delivering care effectively means holding the entire care team responsible for the best possible patient outcome–every time,” said David McGuffie, President and COO of Covisint. “Trenton’s ability to deliver on this promise will dramatically improve not only patient and regional health, but also the organization’s health and infrastructure in preparation for becoming a Medicaid ACO.”

Trenton Health Team

The Trenton Health Team (THT) is a collaborative alliance comprised of the City of Trenton, Capital Health, St. Francis Medical Center and the Henry J. Austin Health Center, Trenton’s only Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). THT is a community planning and service organization committed to designing and implementing a tightly integrated health care delivery system in their proposed planning area to include six specific Trenton zip codes (08608, 08609, 08611, 08618, 08629 and 08638). The Trenton Health Team’s vision is to make the city of Trenton, New Jersey the healthiest city in the state.Learn more at the THT website, www.trentonhealthteam.org

Covisint, a Compuware Company

Covisint, a Compuware company, enables information ecosystems that quickly revolutionize organizations by providing secure communication and collaboration between people and systems in remarkably simple ways. Covisint is a recognized cloud computing pioneer driving the on-demand revolution that helps organizations connect, communicate and collaborate with their partners–enabling anywhere, anytime information. The Covisint ExchangeLink™ platform provides industry-specific services for identity management, collaborative portals and data exchange, as well as a third-party application marketplace. Learn more at www.covisint.com.

Compuware Corporation

Compuware Corporation, the technology performance company, provides software, experts and best practices to ensure technology works well and delivers value. Compuware solutions make the world’s most important technologies perform at their best for leading organizations worldwide, including 46 of the top 50 Fortune 500 companies and 12 of the top 20 most visited U.S. web sites. Learn more at: http://www.compuware.com.

This morning, Anvita announced that its Smart Problem List has been selected by Covisint to augment that company’s HIE data aggregation and care platform. Covisint’s HIE platform is available through AT&T.

The Smart Problem List is an at-a-glance current medical profile with features to enhance the understanding of a patient’s status. It goes beyond an active problem list by incorporating all available forms of clinical data (e.g., medical and pharmacy claims, EHRs, lab values, etc.) to build the most robust view of the patient. In particular, it displays active diagnoses in priority order, driven by analysis of clinical data against evidence-based guidelines; lists active medications with days supplied and quantity dispensed to track adherence; and tracks permanent, irreversible procedures of major clinical importance; among other things.

As I’m sure you’ve seen, clinical analytics has seen a surge of interest lately: HIMSS recently formed a committee on the subject, and there are more education sessions and content related to the field at this year’s meeting than ever before. Anvita has been doing this for over 11 years and has one of the most sophisticated engines on the market today

Leading laboratory revolutionizes traditional services via cloud technology to help medical practices achieve multi-system integration, data exchange and reform initiatives

LAS VEGAS-HIMSS Annual Conference-4medica booth #449, Feb. 20, 2012-In a bold move that recognizes the need to augment its core lab services to help physicians address health reform and other challenges, TriCore Reference Laboratories today announced selecting 4medica to drive lab and patient data integration, interoperability and connectivity. TriCore will offer the 4medica Ambulatory Cloud Integrated Electronic Health Record (4medica iEHR®) to approximately 4,700 physicians practicing medicine in the state of New Mexico, many of whom work in rural areas lacking advanced technology.

TriCore is an independent, full service reference laboratory serving hospitals, physicians and their patients throughout New Mexico and the Southwest. Through its sponsors, The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center and Presbyterian Healthcare Services, TriCore provides state-of-the-art laboratory testing, anatomic pathology, and consultative services. 4medica’s certified iEHR solution’s bi-directional connectivity and seamless data exchange capabilities position reference labs and practices to navigate the economic and governmental changes responsible for driving connected healthcare.

“We have an urgent need to replace numerous legacy systems that are difficult and costly to interface, maintain and use,” said Jessie Salk, CEO of TriCore. “We chose 4medica because their iEHR is at the forefront of truly integrated SaaS health record technology. The solution’s combined lab automation and medical record features best met our changing business needs and vision to evolve our services to the next level of excellence. We expect 4medica’s iEHR to enhance the physician experience ordering tests and receiving results, streamline billing processes, obtain higher quality information, and monitor and analyze data in near real time-all of which vastly contribute to improved patient care and outcomes.”

Rapid adoption of EHRs and looming health reforms including the phased roll out of Meaningful Use, the shift from fee-for-service to value-based purchasing and pay-for-performance payment programs such as accountable care organizations (ACOs), and the proliferation of health information exchanges (HIEs) are also contributing factors to TriCore’s urgency in upgrading its lab service approach.

“As a local partner and solution provider to physicians, we actively seek innovative ways to meet their patient care needs through our quality laboratory test results and technology along with Meaningful Use requirements and compliance with government regulations,” said Salk. “Because physicians are extremely busy professionals, our goal is to give them back at least 15 minutes of their day. And to survive the seismic structural shift that is coming, we must provide additional value by giving practices the ability to interface their electronic records with 4medica’s iEHR lab module and to obtain a complete comprehensive EHR with the same product.”

“We are excited to partner with one of the nation’s visionary organizations pioneering a new era of reference laboratory customer service where physicians consider EHRs an important part of their daily workflow,” said Oleg Bess, M.D., 4medica’s CEO. “We look forward to a long partnership with TriCore in supporting our joint mission to convert physicians from low-level EHR users to efficient, sophisticated users, which will increase the likelihood of quality improvements and financial rewards.”

About TriCore

Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Albuquerque, TriCore Reference Laboratories leads the Southwest in providing comprehensive laboratory information of exceptional quality and value. Leadership is achieved by dedicated people who support innovation, advanced technology, customer service, education and research. TriCore offers more than 1,500 laboratory tests ranging from routine (such as cholesterol screens) to highly specialized (such as genetic testing), and operates more than 50 satellite centers throughout New Mexico and the Southwest. Through its commitment to quality, TriCore is one of only 18 labs in the United States, and the first-ever multi-site laboratory, to meet the rigorous requirements of CAP 15189SM. TriCore participates in scientific research through collaboration with the University of New Mexico and numerous national and international biotech firms. For more information, please visit www.tricore.org.

About 4medica

4medica provides the industry’s leading cloud SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) clinical integration platform, the 4medica Integrated Electronic Health Record (4medica iEHR®), to help healthcare organizations of diverse types create a seamless view of the patient care experience and drive EHR adoption. The intuitive iEHR platform design integrates with and builds upon disparate systems to facilitate interoperable data exchange across various care settings to promote care continuity. The cloud computing model is scalable, lower cost, maintenance-free, easy to use and deployable in a few months or less, eliminating large capital outlays or resource utilization. This is especially critical for small community and rural hospitals and physician health organizations of all types and sizes striving to qualify for ARRA incentives and to demonstrate Meaningful Use. 4medica connects 100-plus institutional facilities including hospitals, health systems, physicians, laboratories and radiology and pathology clinics, and its products are used by more than 30,000 physicians. For more information, visit http://www.4medica.com.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - February 15, 2012 - In Ohio, the future is now. The Ohio Health Information Partnership (The Partnership) is creating a statewide environment for improved patient safety and coordination of care, having signed up more than 6,000 primary care physicians to use electronic health records, the highest number of any Regional Extension Center in the nation.

“The fact that so many physicians have signed up shows the commitment that Ohio physicians have in utilizing new technologies to improve patient care and outcomes,” said Brent Mulgrew, an executive board member of The Partnership and executive director of the Ohio State Medical Association (OSMA).

The Partnership also committed to the Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology (HIT) that it will support outreach so that 10,000 physicians can meet Medicare and Medicaid federal meaningful use requirements in 2012.

Using Medicity technology, The Partnership’s CliniSync Health Information Exchange (HIE) has 56 hospitals signed up, including rural and underserved regions. CliniSync also has commitments from one health plan, one national lab, nine physician groups and four other patient care organizations (labs, clinics, paramedics). St. Rita’s Medical Center in Lima, Ohio, is now live.

“Rural areas have traditionally been the low folks on the totem pole,” said Jon Wills, executive director of the Ohio Osteopathic Association and an executive board member. “The HITECH Act specifically targeted areas of greatest need to improve patient access and coordinate care more effectively.”

Alongside the regional, grassroots approach that will lead to full statewide exchange, The Partnership is working with state leaders in public reporting, the expansion of patient-centered medical homes, behavioral health homes and easier transitions for people to long-term care, nursing homes and home health through HIE.

Dr. Brian Bachelder, a family practitioner who serves on The Partnership’s board, said physicians show a strong commitment to patients when they choose this advanced technology.

“A physician can go from giving good care to great care, just by organizing the patient’s information. The more your doctor knows about you, the better the care provided,” Dr. Bachelder said. “Now, multiply that by hundreds when we link all of your care together through our statewide health information exchange, CliniSync. More information, giving better care in seconds – that’s powerful. You sure can’t do that on paper,” he said.

Highlights

• Florida HIE to present at HIMSS12 Interoperability Showcase.
• Florida HIE shares clinical records statewide using secure protocols, while leveraging existing investments.
• Fulfills top ONC initiatives — Direct, CONNECT, and state HIE development.

MELBOURNE, FL/WASHINGTON, DC, February 15, 2012 – Harris Corporation and Florida Hospital-Adventist and Strategic Health Intelligence will demonstrate an open-source, standards-based information exchange created to connect Florida healthcare providers at the HIMSS12 Interoperability Showcase, February 21-23 at the Venetian Sands Expo Center, Las Vegas.

The information exchange offers two distinct, yet complementary services:

• Patient Look-up (PLU), a query-and-retrieve “pull” exchange based on the Nationwide Health Information Network CONNECT standards;  and
• Direct Secure Messaging (DSM), an encrypted email “push” service based on Direct protocols.

These capabilities will be showcased in the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) area of the HIMSS12 Interoperability Showcase, Booth 11000, Hall G, February 21-23, 2012, in Las Vegas.

“The Florida HIE demonstrates how Harris is advancing healthcare by implementing ONC standards throughout the state of Florida,” said Jim Traficant, president, Harris Healthcare Solutions.  “The Florida HIE shows how health care organizations can exchange health information securely across an array of provider systems to enhance care quality and efficiency.”

Harris’ experience with the Florida HIE dates back to December 2010 when Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) awarded Harris a four-year, $19 million contract to develop a statewide HIE capable of supporting data sharing requirements for meaningful use of electronic health records .

The Florida HIE went live in July 2011 with DSM, a secure communications network that relies on Direct Project standards and a participant directory.  The Florida HIE has since deployed its PLU Service, which reflects Florida’s implementation of ONC’s CONNECT standard.  More than 9,000 physicians who care for Florida’s patients can now log into an EHR or HIE portal, look up a patient by demographic criteria and choose which records to access and view.

Harris also will co-present with the AHCA at a HIMSS12 educational session entitled, “Florida State Health Information Exchange: Lessons Learned,” on February 21 at 11 a.m. – 12 p.m., at Lando 4306, in the Venetian Sands Expo Center.  The session will cover the procurement, implementation and deployment phases of the Florida HIE’s development, including decisions related to policy, consent, technical implementation and sustainability.

Harris will demonstrate its complete product portfolio in Booth 834 throughout HIMSS12.  Visit www.harris-is.com/himss12 for more information and to schedule a private demonstration.

In healthcare solutions, Harris provides enterprise intelligence solutions and services for government and commercial customers — including systems integration, intelligent infrastructure, interoperability, imaging, and other IT solutions.  A leader in federal healthcare IT integration, Harris products, systems and services improve healthcare outcomes by assuring that critical medical and benefits information is delivered with security and privacy to the right person, on the right device, at the point of care.

About Harris Corporation

Harris is an international communications and information technology company serving government and commercial markets in more than 150 countries.  Headquartered in Melbourne, Florida, the company has approximately $6 billion of annual revenue and about 17,000 employees — including nearly 7,000 engineers and scientists.  Harris is dedicated to developing best-in-class assured communications^® products, systems, and services.  Additional information about Harris Corporation is available at www.harris.com.