MUSC connects to health information exchange

In September, MUSC Health became one of 28 partners to successfully connect to the nationwide eHealth Exchange.

The project, formerly known as the National Health Information Network (NHIN), is a group of federal agencies and non-federal organizations that come together for a common mission — to improve patient care, streamline disability benefit claims, and improve public health reporting through an interoperable health information exchange.

Participating organizations mutually agree to support a common set of standards that enable a secure, trusted, and interoperable connection among all participating exchange organizations for the standardized flow of patient information, by:

• Sending health patient information to other participating organizations
  
• Finding and requesting copies of health care information from other participating organizations, where permitted by law and policy
  
• Matching patients to their data without a national patient identifier
• Subscribing to receive updates to health information
  

Currently, 28 partners, including MUSC Health, share health information across eHealth Exchange. The partners are a mix of private and public organizations that include Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Department of Defense, Social Security Administration, and Veteran Affairs as well as industry heavyweights Kaiser Permanente, Marshfield Clinic, and several regional health exchanges such as MedVirginia.

The on-boarding effort, which required meeting very strict testing requirements defined by the CMS' Office of the National Coordinator, was led by Mark Daniels, director of OCIO's Enterprise IT Architecture team.

"The testing effort for on-boarding to the Exchange was an all-inclusive process and followed strict guidelines sent by the ONC [Office of the National Coordinator, Health Information Technology]. Not only did we have to address traditional IT integration testing, but we also had to ensure that all information, security and privacy safeguards were in place and working correctly," said Daniels.

MUSC Health is using its connection to the exchange to electronically share patient information with the Ralph H. Johnson VA hospital and clinic as part of a national pilot program known as the Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER). MUSC Health caregivers see thousands of VA patients each year, and the automated process significantly improves the time and efficiency of care.

MUSC Health will use the exchange to automate the SSA's disability request process in which MUSC Health has thousands of transactions per year. The automated process will reduce time required and reduce the need for manual intervention by MUSC personnel.

"As more and more health care providers and payer organizations connect, the exchange will become the health care Internet – a secure, reliable, and convenient way to exchange patient information and achieve interoperability among caregivers," said Frank C. Clark, Ph.D., vice president for information technology and chief information officer at MUSC.
"We are also in discussion with CeHA, the Charleston-based health information exchange, about transitioning the MUSC Health exchange connection to CeHA, which would provide exchange access to CeHA members, Roper St. Francis, Trident in Summerville and East Cooper health care organizations."

Friday, Jan. 11, 2013