MDNews - Central New York

COVER FEATURE Connecting Physicians to Better Care New York — brings together all patient medical information electronically, helping to better connect area hospitals and physicians. The organization also serves as a resource for physicians who are adopting electronic medical records and are working to meet government standards to improve health care. One of 12 RHIOs in New York state, E HealtheConnections is a nonprofi t organi- zation formed by the Health Advancement S TA B L I S H E D I N 2 0 1 0 , HealtheConnections — the regional health information organization (RHIO) of Central Collaborative of Central New York (HAC- CNY). HAC-CNY was established in 2005 as a nonprofi t, regional collaborative of leaders in health care, business and insur- ance. The organization addresses health care access, quality and costs — with a focus on cost improvement in Central New York — and is responsible for overseeing a secure electronic health information exchange (HIE), which is being accom- plished through the implementation of HealtheConnections. HealtheConnections, along with 11 other New York state RHIOs and approximately 300 across the United States, is actively working to build an “information highway” where participating health care providers can access and share patient health records online. Each RHIO will serve as a building block for the National Health Information Network (NHIN), which, when complete, will provide universal and secure access to electronic health records (EHRs). Regionally, HealtheConnections is connecting health care providers in the 11 counties of Central and Northern New York. HealtheConnections has already achieved milestones by connect- ing the four Syracuse area hospitals and Laboratory Alliance of Central New York Left to right: John Netti, Director of EHR Adoption Services; Mike Spurchise, Director of HIE Services; Karen Romano, Director of Operations; Rob Hack, Executive Director

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