Upper Peninsula Health Care NetworkGary Fullerton; 906-225-7158orDodge Communications for ICAJeff Nessler; 770-576-2573
, the parent organization for , and , a leading provider of interoperability technology that enables care management and health information exchange (HIE), announced today that UPHIE has achieved a critical mass of significant milestones enabling it to go live in record time with its HIE that will cover one-third of the state of Michigan, serving approximately 300,000 people. UPHIE finalized a contract with ICA in August.
Among the critical milestones achieved were:
UPHIE is using ICA’s , which is an interoperability platform enabling disparate health information systems to connect and exchange information. This platform also allows for Direct messaging, standards-based secure clinical communications and data exchange, including HL7 and continuity of care documents (CCD).
Paula Johnson, Director of Enterprise Business Systems at UPHCN, stated, “UPHIE continues to push the boundaries of the markets we believe can benefit from an HIE in the Upper Peninsula. We tirelessly explore new and different ways for the local medical community to engage with our HIE and seek ways the HIE can provide value back to providers. We also continue to build a strong relationship with the state of Michigan and are developing a reputation as a team that the state can count on to deliver.”
Gary Zegiestowsky, Chief Executive Officer of ICA, added, “UPHIE’s remarkable ability to coalesce, work together and stay focused on implementing the first stages of this important regional HIE has been a marvel to watch. We are excited to have provided our CareAlign Exchange interoperability platform with embedded Direct messaging capabilities to enable this rapid ramp up.”
UPHIE covers more than 16,400 square miles and includes more than 900 medical and ancillary providers.
The Upper Peninsula Health Care Network (UPHCN) is a corporation of health care organizations formed in 1995 to facilitate access to high-quality health care at a reasonable cost. Together, UPHCN members are continuously working to provide coordinated health care delivery for residents in the Upper Peninsula and surrounding communities through the Upper Peninsula Health Information Exchange (UPHIE). UPHIE is charged to improve the quality, delivery, and efficiency of health care through the collaborative use of information technology and clinical data exchange. UPHIE recently selected ICA to be its HIE vendor and executed documentation for it to become an active, qualified data-sharing organization offering a new level of services to the entire Upper Peninsula via the Michigan Health Information Network (MiHIN) backbone to the rest of Michigan. UPHIE is represented on the MiHIN Board of Directors by Dennis H. Smith and is an officially designated substate HIE in Michigan.
Originating from clinical informatics solutions developed within Vanderbilt Medical Center, ICA’s state-of-the-art CareAlign® interoperability and informatics platform addresses and solves data and communication challenges for many healthcare entities, including hospitals, IPAs, IDNs, HIEs, payers and others. CareAlign delivers a flexible architecture to connect, collect, consume and intelligently distribute data through Direct, IHE, HL7, and custom methods for use in EHRs, third party applications, and ICA’s applications. CareAlign unites a wide range of information and supports analytic needs associated with population health management, transitions of care communication, re-admissions reduction, meaningful use requirements and PCMH/ACO operations. Visit , and follow us on , , , and .