If you are exploring health information exchange (HIE) solutions, be sure to tap the newly updated LeadingAge CAST HIE Selection Tool. The white paper will give you background on HIE modalities, the range of HIE entities, and networks serving the market. The tool will help you plan for and select an HIE partner and choose solutions that best fit your requirements.

The tool now includes updated information on 40 HIE entities in the selection matrix and online selection tool. Six new HIEs have been included:

• Evoke Health: Shares resident information with families in real‑time through secure EHR integration.
• GenesisLink: In partnership with the KONZA National Network, offers a physician- and health plan-led HIE serving the Dallas Ft. Worth Metropolitan Service Area.
• MiHIN: Michigan’s not-for-profit statewide health information network securely connects care teams, hospitals, pharmacies, health insurance providers, and public health to deliver the best care for residents.
• Providence HIE: Provides secure electronic clinical data exchange among more than 5,300 providers and healthcare organizations, serving 15 million patients.
• Velatura HIE: A not-for-profit organization offering affiliation, collaboration, and integration opportunities to HIEs across the country.
• Wyoming Frontier Information: Makes it easier for medical care teams throughout Wyoming to securely share clinical information between institutions and practices.

 The tools also include an interactive guide and HIE case studies.

New CAST Case Studies

Two new case studies show the potential of HIEs to streamline and improve the quality of care and lower costs.

“Enhancing Staff Efficiency and Person-Centered Care through Technology”: Rehab at Shannondell at Valley Forge, a continuing care retirement community, adopted Evoke Health’s Engage+ in its 120-bed short-term rehab facility to streamline communication and digitize access to health information for patients and their families.

The ability to automatically share health information in real time and to send electronic messages via Engage+ reduced phone calls at Rehab at Shannondell by 40%. The nursing team saved an average of one hour per day. The saved time has been repurposed toward hands-on patient care, and it comes with a financial benefit of at least $16,000 per year.

In addition, families received peace of mind about their loved ones’ care.  Based on this positive experience, Engage+ has been rolled out to The Meadows at Shannondell, which is a personal care community within Shannondell at Valley Forge.

“Automated Intelligent Queries Promote Efficiencies in Emergency Department”: HEALTHeLINK is a collaboration among hospitals, physicians, health plans and other health care providers in western New York State to securely exchange clinical information to improve the quality of care, enhance patient safety, and mitigate health care costs.

Utilizing intelligent query, HEALTHeLINK launched an Emergency Department (ED) Summary Report with Erie County Medical Center (ECMC), Western New York’s only Level 1 Adult Trauma Center and a regional center for other advanced medical services.

With this functionality, HEALTHeLINK immediately generates specific queries from Intelligent Query Gateway (IQG) using the HL7 FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) standard for a pre-defined set of data and sends to the hospital’s electronic health record when a patient is registered at ECMC’s ED.

Since going live in October 2021, HEALTHeLINK has seen an approximately 40% decrease in user-generated patient record lookups from ECMC’s ED.