HIE Enters Agreement To Elevate Interoperability Services
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
Mirth to power Arizona’s statewide Health Information Exchange.
Mirth, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Quality Systems, Inc. and a global leader in health information technology, has entered into an agreement with Health Information Network of Arizona (HINAz or The Network), Arizona's statewide health information exchange (HIE) that is operated by Arizona Health-e Connection (AzHeC), according to a press release. Mirth will elevate interoperability services and care coordination for HINAz.
According to the release, “Mirth will power The Network's secure bidirectional exchange of patient health information among The Network's participants and will provide a technology upgrade to include four new service offerings: Direct Exchange; Admission-Discharge-Transfer (ADT) Alerts and Results Notifications; Public Health Reporting Gateway and eHealth Exchange.”
HINAz is Arizona's largest statewide health information organization (HIO), and its participants include hospitals, physicians, health plans, reference labs and other healthcare organizations representing more than half of all licensed hospital beds and covered patients in the state. The Network is a program of Arizona Health-e Connection that provides secure access to patient health information as well as the secure exchange of patient health information between The Network and its participating organizations and providers.
"The selection of Mirth has involved a process of seeking input from Network participants and community stakeholders," Melissa Kotrys, chief executive officer of AzHeC, stated in the release.
"We have incorporated feedback, and now we will be able to respond by introducing services that bridge the gap between health systems, hospitals and providers throughout the state. With a 'go-live' projected for the spring of 2015, these are new services that are best delivered by a statewide HIE and are in direct response to meeting well-defined, practical needs," Kotrys added.
"Mirth technology powers some of the nation's top-ranked and most successful HIEs including, among others, Chesapeake Regional Information System for Our Patients (CRISP) in Maryland, Quality Health Network in Western Colorado, and HealtheConnections in New York," explained Jeff Peters, vice president of operations for Mirth.
"Our goal is to provide public healthcare organizations with next-generation HIE functionality that will enable them to better care for their patient populations. We currently power 36 HIE installations nationally and are committed to leading the efforts to move the interoperability initiatives in healthcare forward."