Connection Between State HIEs Bodes Well For Interoperability
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
Georgia and South Carolina HIEs are now connected in one of the first state-to-state connections.
Georgia Health Information Network (GaHIN), Georgia’s health information exchange, and South Carolina’s Health Information Exchange (SCHIEx), have successfully launched connection between the two statewide networks, according to a press release. This marks one of the first state-to-state health information exchange (HIE) connections in the nation.
The new partnership is designed to facilitate the seamless and secure exchange of patient health information across state borders among hospitals, physicians and clinicians located in Georgia and South Carolina. “With GaHIN’s connectivity to the SCHIEx network comes the ability to seamlessly share medical information immediately and securely across state lines – ultimately paving the way for additional state-to-state connections across the country,” said Denise Hines, executive director of GaHIN in the release. “This expanded connectivity allows for the delivery of the right health information to the right place at the right time – no matter where the patient is receiving care – across secure, robust inter- and intrastate networks.”
The exchange of patient-specific medical information between the two states supports the natural migration of residents between them as a result of relocation, tourism, and travel for specialty care. The new HIE provides seamless exchange of medical information that will improve care quality and save important minutes during emergency and non-emergent situations by providing critical data.
“We recognize that the health needs of South Carolinians don’t stop at the state line,” Sue Veer, who chairs the board that governs SCHIEx, explained in the release. “That’s why this partnership with Georgia is a great step forward. We look forward to the day when there are no barriers to the secure delivery of health records, so that the life-saving information that healthcare professionals need can follow patients wherever they go in the nation.”
The GaHIN and SCHIEx networks leverage a federated exchange architecture that does not necessitate the creation of new data warehouses or a single data location, but rather allows data to remain with the original providers and facilities. These HIEs are secure exchange networks which allow remote access to electronic health records. This connectivity helps achieve Meaningful Use for providers located in both states.
“The GaHIN and SCHIEx teams have gone above and beyond what many other states are doing to create an interstate network that will serve their communities for years to come,” said August Calhoun, senior vice president and general manager for the Provider business of Truven Health Analytics. “This is a trailblazing effort – leading the way for state governing organizations and healthcare providers to work toward better continuity of care, population health management, and the resultant improved quality and cost of care in the U.S.”
The Georgia network currently includes counties across the entire state with more than 16 million patient records accessible to providers. There were more than 200 sites participating in the SCHIEx, representing 680,000 “interoperable lives,” or individual patient records, as of September 2014, according to Healthcare Informatics.
Health Data Management concluded the potential impact of this connection could include the health records of almost 15 million people, based on 2013 United Census population statistics for Georgia and South Carolina.
If this project is successful, it would establish the concept of “inter-operability” between organizations and pave the way for the future of health information exchange across state lines. The efficiency and the effectiveness of the concept will be determined by the ease of navigation of the patient information flow and the data retrieval at the point of care within the clinical decision support system site.