Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/891967
HE ALTHECONNECTIONS HA S BUILT A COMPREHENSIVE HE ALTH INFORMATION E XCHANGE ¥HIE¦ FOR CENTR AL AND NORTHERN NE W YORK. THROUGHOUT THE PA ST YE ARS, WE HAVE E XPERIENCED E XPONENTIAL GROW TH AND PARTNERED WITH HUNDREDS OF PARTICIPANTS ACROSS MANY FACE TS OF THE HE ALTHCARE CONTINUUM. YOUR ORGANIZ ATION MAY already be using one or more of our services to safely a nd securely access patient medica l records — X-ray images, medications, procedures and a whole array of other critica l information — that you need for patient care in day-to-day practice, but does your practice contribute data to the HIE? T he H I E i s u sed by hu nd red s of organizations to increase e'ciency of daily operations, and can even reduce operationa l costs through the time- saving nature of HealtheConnections' services — but they are only possible through the contributions of our part- ner s . Con sider t he v it a l dat a you r organization holds. How could it help the multiple providers your patients visit to give the best care, especially in an emergency situation? Is the patient's medication list accurate? What is the correct diagnosis of that heart mur- mur? Your information could answer questions a s simple a s the date of a patient 's last tetanus shot, but ever y detail is important and can be shared with others who are responsible for your patient's care. There are many reasons to be sure your organization's data is securely stored within the HIE. Your o'ce likely receives requests for records ever y day from hospitals, the health department or vari- ous healthcare facilities. Medications, immunizations, radiology reports — all of these require time spent by sta„ to verify the information, generate a copy of the records, and fax, call or mail the correct materials to the correct party. If your patient records are already in the HIE, you can direct a referral partner to HealtheConnections and allow your sta„ to spend time on other more critical areas of patient care. New York State and the federal govern- ment recognize that sharing data through a health information exchange is critical to improving our healthcare system and the care it provides, and continue to o„er monetary incentives for connecting an EHR and contributing data. Practices that participate in Medicare or Medicaid in New York may be eligible to receive funds from the Data Exchange Incentive Program (DEIP). If you have an EHR that is already integrated with the HIE, sharing data and receiving funds can be simple and straightforward. If your EHR is not connected, HealtheConnections can work with your EHR vendor to assess your system's capability. Currently, more than 225 hospitals, practices, health departments and others are sharing patient medical records for organizations like yours. This repre- sents 70 percent of the providers in our community who are actively contribut- ing information that can better the lives of our patients — and there's plenty of room for more. F o r m o r e i n f o r m a t i o n , g o t o h e a l t h e c o n n e c t i o n s . o r g o r c a l l 315-671-2241. ■ Improving Quality of Care Through Quality Data: THE CASE FOR DATA CONTRIBUTION BY HEALTHECONNECTIONS STAFF 1 8H E A LT H E C O N N E C T I O N S