PLATTSBURGH — CVPH has joined the Healthcare Information Xchange of New York.
It is a collaboration of hospitals, health plans, physician's practices and other providers to more effectively share medical information.
The community-based, non-profit regional health-information organization, which goes by the acronym HIXNY, covers a 17-county region from Albany through the North Country, including Clinton, Essex and Franklin counties.
It is the latest initiative under the Adirondack Region Medical Home Pilot Program.
CONSENT NEEDED
The hospital started to present patients with consent forms about three weeks ago that would allow their information to be shared among network participants, CVPH President Stephens Mundy said at a news conference Tuesday.
About 99 percent of the 4,000 patients who were given forms provided consent. A patient can revoke consent at any time.
SHARED REPORTS
The hospital now provides the Healthcare Information Xchange with information such as allergies, clinical encounters, patient consent, notes and department reports, discharge summaries, image reports, lab results and demographics.
Scott Momrow, vice president for marketing and adoption for the Healthcare Information Xchange of New York, said he believes participation is critical to the care of patients in this region.
It will make a difference for both health-care providers and patients in this community, he said.
SAVING LIVES, MONEY
Momrow said the Healthcare Information Xchange has the ability to save lives — for example, for someone who is unconscious in an emergency room.
Rapid access to the patient's health-care information through the system "can literally be your voice in that emergency," he said.
The network can also save money through a reduction in redundant medical tests.
ALL HOSPITALS IN
Momrow said all of the hospitals in the tri-county region are now part of the system. Mundy said that as the network grows, one goal is to connect with a similar network in Vermont, due to the large numbers of patients who move from area hospitals to ones in that state.
COLLABORATION
The next step in the process is to get as many primary-care physicians as possible to join the Healthcare Information Xchange. That requires those practices to have an electronic medical-records system in place, which most due, thanks to the Medical Home project.
Rachel Block, deputy commissioner for health information technology with the New York State Health Department, said the state has invested more than $400 million on Medical Home programs. That includes establishment of electronic medical-record systems across the state and connection of those systems with Healthcare Information Xchange and other exchanges across the state.
"Collaboration, we believe, is the key to the sustainability of the health-care system," she said.
COMMUNICATION KEY
Dr. Heidi Moore of Mountain View Pediatrics said they joined the Medical Home program early on because she believes its team approach is the best way to provide medical care.
The next step in that program, the Healthcare Information Xchange, should speed access to information. Such communication is the key to a good practice, Moore said.
"I think HIXNY is going to facilitate communication."
That will allow her to devote even more time to one-on-one discussions with her patients, Moore said.
SOUNDER ADVICE
Dr. David Anderson said that as a primary-care provider, one of his main roles is to give advice to patients. He believes the Healthcare Information Xchange will provide access to more timely and accurate information.
"My best advice is predicated on good, accurate information," Anderson said.
BEST CARE
Karen Ashline, director of the Northern Adirondack Medical Home program, said the goal is to have all of the region's primary-care physicians involved with the Healthcare Information Xchange by the end of the year.
It can be tough for a patients to remember all of their medications or all of the procedures they have been through, she noted. That won't be a problem if their information is already in the system.
"This really affords a patient the best continuity of care," she said during a meeting with the Press-Republican Editorial Board later Tuesday.
After signing up area primary-care doctors, the next phase will be to get as many specialists as possible to participate, Momrow said.
He would eventually like to get county health departments, home-care providers and long-term-care providers to take part.
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