GE Healthcare, a major company providing medical imaging systems and healthcare IT solutions, and Keystone Health Information Exchange (KeyHIE), a healthcare IT service provider in central and northeast Pennsylvania, announced plans to expand the region's Health Information Exchange (HIE) to improve chronic disease management capabilities, in addition to, facilitating HIE accessibility to healthcare providers.
Jim Younkin, director, KeyHIE, said “Working with GE, we’ve achieved our initial goal of enhancing patient care by providing critical patient information like problems, medications, and allergies to our emergency department physicians. Our next step is, to use our health information exchange to accelerate collaboration among a broader set of clinicians.”
Geisinger Health System, an integrated delivery network, well-known for its creative use of healthcare IT care coordination, also a founding participant in KeyHIE, received a $16 million Beacon Community award from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. Part of this award is going to be directed towards using KeyHIE to expand patient-focused care coordination throughout a community that involves around 250,000 residents.
Keystone Beacon case managers will be able to access cross-team communications using KeyHIE and receiving auto-generated notifications of patient encounters, rather than relying on faxes and emails.
“KeyHIE supports a highly effective model of coordinated care. KeyHIE has the right focus on improving both patient care in the hospital and at home and on reducing cost inefficiencies, like redundant tests, through better information sharing. As the business model for healthcare providers evolves, KeyHIE is well positioned for the future," concludes Earl Jones, vice president and general manager of GE Healthcare's eHealth Solutions business unit.
