MDNews - Central New York

S I N C E 2 0 07, S O U T H E R N Tier HealthLink (STHL) has been developing and expanding a health information exchange (HIE) that delivers critical patient information to a physician's fingertips any time, day or night, quickly, easily and securely. With a board of directors made up of representatives from various disciplines aside from hospital and physician practices — including public health, long-term care and rural health — STHL gains insight and crucial input that helps identify community information needs where HIE can be of particular use. By focusing on innovation with these com- munity partners, STHL is contributing to more informed medical decision-making, better patient outcomes, lower healthcare costs and overall enhanced care coordina- tion for the Southern Tier of New York. Established with leadership and support by local stakeholders, STHL is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to "connect the dots for better healthcare" by providing a means for caregivers to electronically share and access health data that easily fits within their daily workflow. STHL concentrates on making access to the HIE as easy to implement as possible, as today's physicians are often overburdened. "It is inefficient to force providers to stop what they're doing to log into another platform and download required software," says Executive Director Christina Galanis. "The best way to make HIE accessible is to allow providers to stay on track with their workflow." This is exactly why STHL offers a bidirec- tional continuity of care document (CCD) exchange service, which is electronically integrated with the provider's existing electronic health records (EHR) system and communicates seamlessly with the HIE. This exchange automatically queries the STHL database for patient information when a scheduled appointment is approach- ing or an admission occurs, determines if the provider has the proper patient-given consent to access the information, and then delivers a neatly packaged digital document to the provider's EHR. From there, the physician has the opportunity to review the available information and even incorporate it into his or her charts, if desired. More than 2,300 providers are contrib- uting data via the CCD exchange feature of the STHL HIE. Another 900-plus are able to access the HIE through the STHL Web Portal, a secure place for authorized users to log in and search for data. A third and truly innovative way to access HIE data is available for providers at United Health Services (UHS), one of STHL's founding organizations. Afzal ur Rehman, MD, PhD, FACC, a cardiologist and STHL board member, developed iCare, a mobile app which allows authorized providers immediate access to medical information — including data from the STHL HIE. Compatible with providers' iPhones and iPads, iCare allows physicians access to pertinent information that may affect patient care — whether it be while they are en route to the hospital, doing rounds in the facility or bedside with the patient. The End of Silos In a day when patients are very mobile, the data needs to follow the patient instead of remaining in separate silos. "Many of our patients use more than one healthcare system in our region," says Dina M. Farrell, MD, FACEP, physician in the UHS ED. "Southern Tier HealthLink helps us access information from many surround- ing hospitals so we avoid duplicating tests and services already completed." Regardless of the situation or care envi- ronment, the STHL HIE allows healthcare providers additional information and more effective coordination of a patient's care. These benefits are exemplified in the instances of patients with chronic condi- tions, such as diabetes and hypertension, as well as those requiring multiple specialists or various lab or pathology workups. Although these patients rarely receive services from a single institution, STHL's HIE assimilates their information into one location, saving the provider time and effort when trying to locate patient records. The STHL HIE also allows access to medical information for nontraditional healthcare disciplines that otherwise would not have the ability to obtain this informa- tion easily — such as dentistry, vision or chiropractic care. Sonny Spera, DDS, of Progressive Dental, explains how the STHL HIE gives him the opportunity to "fill in the blanks" of patient histories, which can significantly influence dental care. "People often forget what surgeries they've recently had or what medications and dosages they're currently taking," Dr. Spera says. The STHL HIE takes out the guesswork and provides a starting point for this information. BY UTILIZING TECHNOLOGY, SOUTHERN TIER HEALTHLINK IS MAKING PROFOUND EFFECTS ON CARE DELIVERY THROUGH FACILITATED ELECTRONIC EXCHANGE OF HEALTH INFORMATION. Southern Tier HealthLink: An Inside Look at an Innovative HIE COV ER FE AT UR E 6 | Central New York MD NEWS ■ M D N E W S . CO M

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