In 2007, Spectrum Health became a development site for the deployment of a new concept in health information exchanges (HIEs). The integrated health system in Michigan, which includes seven nationally accredited hospitals with more than 2,000 beds and 140 service centers, set its initial focus exclusively on clinical-result distribution. By leveraging the HIE technology, Spectrum Health was able to eliminate fax delivery of information in 130 offices and streamline delivery of patient data to more than 930 physicians.Communication among ED clinicians and federally qualified health centers in the Milwaukee area was improved, including real-time access to patient historical-encounter data.
A successful health information exchange (HIE) depends on more than just sharing data, according to Kim Pemble, executive director of the Wisconsin HIE (WHIE). In order to optimize impact for clinical care in the community it serves, a successful HIE should be able to bring patient information together in real time through collaboration and information sharing across multiple healthcare organizations, he contends. Additionally, such projects should consider secondary applications of the data, such as in support of public-health surveillance.
Wisconsin has experienced firsthand the challenges of establishing a successful regional HIE. The WHIE recognized the importance of engaging a broad spectrum of stakeholders and sought members from all area healthcare providers, payer organizations, state and local governments, public health officials, community interest, patient advocacy, pharmacies, reference laboratories, and numerous other stakeholders.
Wireless mobile-computing workstations are instrumental in bringingthree dialysis facilities together for videoconferencing.
In a typical day at the Dialysis Center of Lincoln (DCL), in Lincoln, Neb., doctors and nurse practitioners examine dozens of patients during dialysis treatment. While accessing the patient’s electronic medical record (EMR), they carefully check the patient’s skin color, the point of access for the dialysis equipment and other health conditions related to the patients’ kidney disease.
It sounds routine – except that many of the patients are 80 miles north, at DCL’s Columbus facility, or 45 miles south at its Beatrice clinic. The visual exams and documentation are completed using DCL’s telehealth system, which utilizes wireless mobile-computing workstations.
A few years ago, Robert Carroll, M.D., the chairman of emergency medicine and medical director at Eastern Connecticut Health Network (ECHN), took a step back from a day of controlled chaos and realized he needed a better way to gather data that would identify bottlenecks in his emergency departments (EDs). At the time, the staff used paper forms and charts to treat and track patients, and paper was not pulling its weight.
