Selecting An HIE That Helps Contribute To Continuum Of Care

By Wendy Grafius, contributing writer

Tift Regional Medical Center expects improvements in patient care, hospital operations, and physician practices

Tift Regional Medical Center (TRMC), located in Tifton, Georgia, has adopted RelayHealth HIE, a SaaS solution powered by the RelayClinical Platform. This implementation is expected to benefit patient care, hospital operations, and physician practices as well as help the hospital achieve Stage 2 Meaningful Use.

Serving a 12-county area in south central Georgia, TRMC is a 191-bed facility featuring inpatient services in surgery, oncology, cardiovascular, neurology, women’s health, and medical imaging at its main campus, with physician clinics and diagnostic services at its outpatient west campus. Additionally, the Cook Medical Center campus is a 60-bed acute care hospital with a 12-bed geriatric psychiatric unit and 95-bed skilled nursing facility. TRMC was named a “Top-10 Georgia Hospital” in 2012 by Georgia Trend, and in 2013, the health system announced its membership in the newly formed alliance, Stratus Healthcare, a collaboration of 29 hospitals from south and central Georgia in a clinically-integrated network of pooled resources.

TRMC‘s team of physicians evaluated several HIE vendors, looking for a system that would help physicians adopt electronic ordering to reduce human interaction as orders, lab results, and other information move between systems via the HIE. “RelayHealth offered an HIE solution that was real,” said Guy McAllister, assistant vice president and chief information officer at TRMC. “We can deploy one vendor, one solution across multiple care channels. RelayHealth hosts the HIE platform and the infrastructure, so we don’t have to.” Sharing patient information with other RelayHealth HIE customers along the I-75 corridor will allow TRMC to contribute to a continuum of care in Georgia.

RelayHealth, from McKesson, connects patients, providers, pharmacies, payors, and pharmaceutical manufacturers to enhance care, improve financial performance, and satisfy Meaningful Use requirements.  “As the industry moves toward population health management and accountable care systems, providers are seeking ways to improve care quality through better care coordination,” said Jeff Felton, RelayHealth’s president. The HIE will provide TRMC with information to identify and address significant health issues among its population. “We commend Tift Regional Medical Center for demonstrating a strong commitment to the health of its communities,” said Felton.

SOURCE: Business Wire