Direct
Dodge Communications for ICAJeff Nessler, 770-576-2573
Kansas Health Information Network () and a leading provider of interoperability technology that enables care coordination and health information exchange (HIE), announced today that KHIN has launched messaging capabilities for providers in the state of Kansas through Health Information Service Protocol (HISP) transactions. Provider-to-provider messaging became available on the 30 of June 2012. In addition to the current live health information exchange (HIE), 1,442 physicians, with a total of 2,000 participants that include ancillary clinicians, now have the capability to exchange information using the protocols across the state. Additionally, the implementation of the new versions of CareAlign® CareExchange and CareConnect allows approved providers to query patient data at the point of care to improve patient safety and reduce duplicative procedures.
“The success we’ve had in reducing barriers to health information exchange has enabled us to hasten our protocol launch in Kansas,” said Laura McCrary Ed.D., Executive Director KHIN. Kansas providers can begin participating in health information exchange utilizing the protocols if they have a computer and an internet connection. is very similar to Microsoft Outlook so most physicians require little or no training to begin using Direct to share information with other providers. The KHIN Provider Portal complements messaging and allows providers to not only message to other providers, but to also view the patient data in the exchange. The ability to connect hospitals, physicians and patients to improve care while reducing costs is a concept whose time has come and the number of physicians and providers who have chosen to participate in KHIN speaks volumes. ICA gave us the tools we needed to be meet the interoperability standards that our providers and the state has requested.”
KHIN is a statewide HIE initiative that includes both densely populated urban areas, as well as rural areas in Kansas. The CareAlign platform serves all of Kansas including 132 hospitals and more than 4,500 physicians. Foundational members include the Kansas Medical Society, the Kansas Hospital Association and the Wichita Health Information Exchange. This effort is one of the largest in the U.S covering 82,000 square miles and approximately 3,000,000 patients.
Dr. McCrary continued, “We have long believed that this technology will have community-wide benefits for improving care and getting costs under control. So after a successful provider recruitment effort and nearly a year of technology planning and testing, we have been pleased at how smoothly the launch went. In fact, the technology is so intuitive that when we made additional training available to providers not a single provider indicated that they needed it.“
“KHIN took a very careful and rational approach to developing this HIE,” said Gary Zegiestowsky, chief executive officer at ICA. “The project started with a small working group of physicians and other providers. The success of this group led to aggressive provider recruitment and word began to spread. That KHIN now has over 1,400 physicians with a total of 2,000 users participating in its statewide HIE, and the CareAlign platform is enabling HIEs to connect with each other, speaks highly of everyone involved, and it is likely that KHIN will become the standard by which other states measure success in HIE.”
KHIN’s mission is to improve health care quality, coordination and efficiency through the exchange of health information at the point of care utilizing a secure electronic network provided by a collaboration of health care organizations. KHIN is a provider led 501(c)3. It draws users from a broad geographical area and aligns with state data sources to support cost effective delivery of services. It supports and integrates with community and medical trading area efforts to drive care coordination and workflow changes creating a climate to encourage innovation. Its goals are to ensure providers, patients and communities have long-term access to cost effective, sustainable health information exchange aligned with costs distributed across a broad user base. It also encourages and removes barriers so communities and regions can focus on quality improvement, patient centered medical home and entrepreneurial strategies that effect local health outcomes.
ICA was established to take innovative technology developed by to the broader healthcare market, and now delivers a comprehensive health information exchange (HIE) and care management solution to hospitals, IDNs, communities and states. This patient-centered modular approach offers immediate value and return-on-investment through the delivery of clinical information to the point-of-care improving quality while reducing costs. The CareAlign® solution suite, or volume set, includes CareAlign, CareExchange, CareConnect, CareCollaborate, CareMeasure and CareManage. Each volume provides the technology necessary to progressively exchange clinical information, increase care collaboration and manage healthcare risk across the continuum of care with the goal of improving patient outcomes while reducing costs. Visit , follow us on , , , and