Hospitals Need Their Own RHIO
By Edward Marx
CIO, University Hospitals
When I became CIO at University Hospitals (UH) in 2003, I was humbled by the opportunity to serve at an incredible healthcare system. I was further humbled by the seemingly insurmountable task ahead of me. Working with our system leadership and the team around me was gratifying, but what to do with our current state of IT and dissatisfied user community was another story.
UH grew rapidly during the 1990’s from a single hospital academic medical center (Case Medical Center) to a 12 hospital enterprise including five joint ventures. We were an amalgamation of hospitals that was slow to integrate in a material way, especially with IT. Thanks to the vision of our then new CEO, 2003 became the line in the sand from which we began a journey out of a “loose federation” of hospitals and into an integrated healthcare delivery system. The twofold question we had to answer was how to leverage IT to enable this enterprise to transform, and how to begin this process immediately without significant capital and time?
Spending the bulk of my first 150 days meeting with our customers, I focused the majority of my attention on clinicians. I met with clinical leadership one on one. I met with staff physicians in larger yet entirely interactive group settings. I rounded with Residents and shadowed nurses. In the process, I developed an excellent working relationship with our Chief Medical Officer, Nathan Levitan MD. It was clear we needed to quickly deploy a solution that allowed the clinicians single access to all clinical information on their patients despite the multiple sources of data. Something simple, quick and relevant—and inexpensive.
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Healthbridge Delivers Clinical Results to 23 EMR Systems
HealthBridge, the largest Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO) in the United States is delivering clinical results to 23 unique EMR systems using Axolotl's health information exchange (HIE) Elysium solution. The HealthBridge community of approximately 4,500 physicians and 21 hospitals (5 health systems), in the greater Cincinnati area have been electronically communicating results since 2001. With ambulatory EMR adoption on the rise, HealthBridge has been able to quickly accommodate the choices made by its physicians and now has more operational interfaces than any other community. Physicians receive clinical data directly into their EMRs – building a complete patient record.
“HealthBridge is thrilled to be able to provide significant value to physicians that are using EMRs,” said Bob Steffel, CEO, HealthBridge. “Data from 21 hospitals, 2 national laboratories, 2 imaging centers and other healthcare source systems is pushed to those physicians’ EMRs in a way that the EMRs can immediately accept. Using Axolotl's Elysium solution, we no longer have to update code or create customized point-to-point interfaces for each of our 23 community EMRs.”
June 2007
Welcome to the HIMSS RHIO Connection. We invite you to share news and information on your RHIO or HIE with our Editor Sharolyn Rosier Hyson, shyson@himss.org.
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In this issue:
Top RHIO News
Advocacy and Public Policy
RHIO Spotlight
Tools and Resources
Technology Corner
Calendar of Events
HP Joins CalRHIO to Build Country’s Largest Statewide HIE
CalRHIO announced today that HP has agreed in principle to join Medicity, Inc., and Perot Systems Corporation in creating the country’s largest statewide health information exchange (HIE) utility service. The goal is to offer California healthcare providers and patients secure electronic access to medical records, where and when the information is needed.
CalRHIO estimates that every day in California, 50,000 or more patients are experiencing suboptimal care solely because important medical information is missing from their records. CalRHIO’s HIE Utility Service will offer communities that want to enable all their healthcare providers to exchange information an optional alternative to building and financing their own infrastructure. For communities that have already initiated local health information exchange efforts, the services offered will be compatible and complementary.
Survey Finds Physicians Trusted in Providing Information
Sixty-seven percent of consumers say they trust their physicians most in providing them with information about secure electronic health information exchange, compared with 8% who said they trust hospitals the most, according to a survey by the eHealth Initiative Foundation. Seven percent of respondents said that they trusted the federal government the most, while 5% favored health insurers. Three percent of respondents said they trusted employers the most and 3% said they trusted the state government.
However, physician respondents were the most resistant to heath data exchange, according to the survey. They cited concerns, such as liability, interoperability and costs. The survey also found that 70% of respondents support the development of health data exchange, while 21% oppose its development. Results are based on a survey of 1,000 adults in five Gulf Coast states.
AHRA Issues Pre-solicitation for Health IT/HIE Assistance
Last week, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) issued a pre-solicitation (AHRQ-07-10039) seeking technical assistance to help state Medicaid agencies implement health IT and/or participate in HIEs. These efforts will be coordinated with other health IT projects at AHRQ and potentially at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Healthcare Services Administration. Information on the pre-solicitation is now available on www.fedbizopps.gov. The solicitation will be available both on www.fedbizopps.gov and on www.ahrq.gov. For more information, contact Jessica Alderton, Contract Specialist at Jessica.alderton@ahrq.hhs.gov.
House Legislation Would Establish Public Private HIT Partnership
The Chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology Bart Gordon (D-TN) recently introduced legislation (H.R 2406) that will help the National Institute of Standards and Technology develop guidelines and standards for healthcare information infrastructures. The legislation points out the need to establish a federal healthcare IT system infrastructure to connect agencies such as DOD and the VA, and to promote the testing of electronic healthcare information technologies that are used by Federal agencies. The legislation would establish assistance for institutions of higher education to form partnerships with for-profit or non-profit entities to establish Centers for Healthcare Information Enterprise Integration. These multidisciplinary partnerships can include government laboratories.
DoD Unveils New Patient Safety Site
The Department of Defense Patient Safety Program’s new web site is a comprehensive one-stop source of information available to military and civilian patient safety administrators and healthcare providers. The site offers pamphlets, information on training resources, and educational materials.
Poll Finds Americans Want Access to EMRs
A nationwide poll recently released found that an overwhelming majority of Americans want greater access to electronic medical records (EMRs), while a significant portion incorrectly believe their doctors are currently using the technology. Released as part of a bipartisan Congressional forum on the topic, the study, sponsored by the Erickson Retirement Communities, shows overwhelming support for increased adoption of EMR (70%), yet nearly two-thirds wrongly assume their healthcare providers have adopted EMR technology.
Erickson Retirement Communities, a pioneer in the field of EMR, attests to the effectiveness of implementing usage of EMR. At 19 Erikson communities in 10 states, serving more than 18,000 seniors, virtually all residents keep EMRs, where they have saved countless lives by keeping both physicians and patients informed. In 2004, when the Food & Drug Administration recalled the arthritis drug Vioxx, doctors at Erickson communities were able to identify all Vioxx patients within 15 minutes. By the end of the day, all patients were notified to stop taking the drug.
Guide to Establishing a Regional Health Information Organization
Written by the HIMSS RHIO Guidebook Task Force, the book is a comprehensive resource to support and guide those who are exploring, or actively involved in community initiatives to establish a RHIO to support the interoperable exchange of health information.
RHIO Webinar-SEMHIE: Evolution of an HIE in a Complex Urban Market
June 13, 2007
Federated Identity Management
Tuesday, June 19
HIMSS Summit07
San Diego, CA
June 25 - 26, 2007
Rural Health Information Technology (HIT): Navigating the Road to Performance Improvement Conference
The Westin Crown Center
Kansas City, MO
September 12-14, 2007
