New Hampshire Health Information Organization (NHHIO) Selects Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative (MAeHC) As State HIE Executive Director And Orion Health As Technical Vendor

MAeHC to Develop and Manage NH's HIE, Connecting Key Healthcare Entities to Increase Efficiencies and Improve Patient Safety Outcomes; Orion Health HIE to Provide HIE Platform and Solutions

The Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative (MAeHC), a non-profit pioneer and leader in healthcare delivery through health information technology, announced recently that it has been selected by the New Hampshire Health Information Organization (NHHIO) to provide Executive Director Management services for the implementation of the statewide Health Information Exchange (HIE). 

The NHHIO, a non-profit organization created by New Hampshire legislation in 2011 to establish a statewide electronic health network for healthcare providers, selected MAeHC to help them lead the State's HIE initiatives based on the organization's national reputation and experience working with the New Hampshire healthcare provider community via the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and as the operator of the Regional Extension Center of New Hampshire (RECNH). 

As the NHHIO Executive Director of Management services, MAeHC will assist the NHHIO board of directors in providing the overall executive leadership, strategic direction and management for the State's HIE initiatives which will allow healthcare providers to exchange electronic health information in a secure environment.  The NHHIO also selected Orion Health as the technical vendor to provide the HIE technology backbone and solutions that will enable statewide clinical data sharing.

"We are excited to move forward with MAeHC as the State's HIE Executive Director. They have a strong reputation for their HIE efforts throughout the country and offer years of experience that will help us achieve our vision to leverage existing resources and close the gaps on information exchange," said Denise Purington, Chair of the NHHIO. "And Orion Health has long been a trusted partner of the State, where its solutions are being utilized within The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services and in several of the state's hospitals and other healthcare organizations. Together, we're certain that we will be able to create a secure and robust Statewide HIE which will reduce costs in healthcare while improving the quality, efficiency and safety of patient care."

"This project promises to deliver a significant and lasting benefit to the health and safety of the citizens of New Hampshire, and we are thrilled to have such able and respected partners working with us to ensure the success of this critical initiative," said Nick Toumpas, Commissioner, New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services.

"MAeHC and Orion Health have worked closely with stakeholders from the earliest stages of this process, ensuring that our community gets the most utility and benefit from the NHHIO right from the start.  We are very pleased with the progress so far and are looking forward to the next phase."     

MAeHC will help the NHHIO board of directors develop a platform of core services necessary to facilitate the secure routing of data between existing private, local and regional HIE partners. Such information includes summary of care documents such as hospital discharge summaries, referral and consultation notes, as well as lab results and imaging reports.

To support the delivery of these documents and data, the NHHIO will also implement security services such as secure messaging that will be built in alignment with national specifications as well as provider addressing and auditing. Future phases may include an electronic master patient index, record locator services and the expansion of services to other healthcare stakeholders.

"We are honored to have been selected for such a key role in one of the nation's most advanced state HIE infrastructures," said Micky Tripathi, CEO of the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative.  "The New Hampshire initiative is a great example of a private HIE that will be operated differently from the state run initiatives throughout the country. By doing a few things well for a few key constituents, we hope to incrementally build confidence in and utilization of HIE resources for future growth."

About New Hampshire Health Information Organization (NHHIO)
NHHIO is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization created by legislation that is establishing a statewide electronic health network to share patient health information between health care providers in a timely, secure, and confidential manner. Our goal is to collaborate with hospitals, physicians, community health centers, long term care providers, home care providers and other clinicians involved in the delivery of healthcare. Our vision is to design and implement a secure and robust health information exchange which will lead to the reduction in healthcare cost and improve quality, efficiency, and safety of patient care. In 2010 multi-stakeholder workgroups were formed to address six Health Information Exchange (HIE) planning and operational domains:

Governance, Finance, Technical Infrastructure, Business & Technical Operations, Legal & Policy and Public Health workgroup members were instrumental in the collaborative process that resulted in a Strategic and Operational Plan for Health Information Exchange in New Hampshire that was approved by the Office of the National Coordinator in December of 2010.   This multi stakeholder effort also resulted in legislation that created the NHHIO effective July 5, 2011. To learn more about NHHIO and its board of directors, please visit us at www.nhhio.org

About Orion Health Inc.
Founded in 1993 in Auckland, New Zealand, Orion Health is the only global, independently owned eHealth technology company. With an inherent ability to interconnect a wide variety of healthcare information systems, Orion Health has become the world's leading provider of health information exchange (HIE) and healthcare integration solutions. Orion Health has extensive experience in the design and installation of complex systems within demanding healthcare environments. Today, Orion Health products and solutions are implemented in more than 30 countries, used by hundreds of thousands of clinicians, and help facilitate care for tens of millions of patients. Clinicians, provider facilities and OEM partners rely on Orion Health to facilitate data exchange between hospitals, health systems, HIEs, and affiliated providers and medical devices, resulting in improved care coordination, increased cost savings and efficiencies, and enhanced quality of care.

In the U.S., Orion Health(tm) HIE provides the technology backbone for state and regional HIEs across the country. Orion Health Rhapsody(r) Integration Engine is used by nearly all state and local health departments for public health reporting. Customers include Catholic Health Initiatives, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Beacon Community of the Inland Northwest, Geisinger Health System, Inland Empire HIE, Kaiser Permanente, Lahey Clinic, Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum, Lehigh Valley Health Network, Maine HealthInfoNet, Massachusetts Health Information Highway and St. Vincent's HealthCare.

For more information, visit www.orionhealth.com.

About Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative (MAeHC)
The Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative is a national leader in the facilitation and management of electronic health record deployment, health information exchange and quality measure reporting. MAeHC is an independent non-profit corporation with a charitable mission to improve the delivery of health care by promoting the use of health IT.  Formed in 2004 as a collaboration of non-profit health care stakeholders to demonstrate the most effective ways to deploy EHRs and HIE to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and affordability of care in Massachusetts, MAeHC now works across the United States with a wide range of physician practices, hospitals, state governments, contracting networks, management services organizations, HIE organizations, technology vendors, and consulting firms.  For more information, please visit www.maehc.org.