Industry Insight

Kentucky HIE Advances Through New Partnership

The Kentucky Health Information Exchange (KHIE), St Elizabeth Healthcare, and HealthBridge recently announced the successful secure exchange of patient medical records among the three organizations. The announcement is a significant step forward in ongoing efforts to advance HIE in Kentucky that will ease the transfer of patient health records among healthcare facilities, providers, labs, and pharmacies. The KHIE now has the ability to receive and distribute patient health records from St Elizabeth Healthcare to other providers and facilities that are using the KHIE.

The KHIE is receiving demographic information, radiology reports, admission notices, discharge summaries, and other critical health information from St Elizabeth Healthcare through HealthBridge. It will ensure that this information is available to other authorized healthcare providers to assist them in providing continuity of care. They will have timely access to current prescriptions, recent tests, and more. Simply stated, this puts the power of information and collaboration in the hands of providers at the point of care, which leads to better decision making and faster, more effective treatment, more accurate diagnosis, and more positive outcomes for their patients.

The KHIE supports the exchange of health information according to nationally recognized standards. Physicians can access a patient’s health information directly from the EHRs of the other physicians, hospitals, laboratories, and imaging centers where a patient has been seen. The system is HIPAA compliant and offers multiple levels of security to ensure patient privacy.

— Source: HealthBridge

 

CORHIO’s Policy Director Transitions to New Role as State HIT Director

The Colorado Regional Health Information Organization (CORHIO) recently announced that its policy director, Liza Fox-Wylie, has been selected to become Colorado’s state HIT director.

In this role, Fox-Wylie will provide strategic leadership for Colorado’s HIT initiatives across state agencies and lead coordination among the state and nonstate HIT initiatives and federally funded HITECH programs. Furthermore, she will continue her involvement with CORHIO, meeting regularly with the organization’s leadership and program staff on strategic initiatives, representing state HIT programs at CORHIO board meetings, serving on CORHIO committees and advisory groups and through implementation of the Colorado State Health Information Exchange Strategic Plan.

— Source: CORHIO

 

Gordon Joins Paragon Technology Group to Head HIT Practice

Paragon Technology Group, a provider of strategic technology solutions for the public sector, recently announced that David Gordon has been named vice president for its rapidly expanding HIT practice. Gordon will be responsible for leading the division in delivering advanced HIT solutions to government clients.

Gordon brings to the position experience in management and technology consulting, including 20 years in various positions with Booz Allen Hamilton, most recently serving as a principal within the health market. He led the organization’s IT support to the National Institutes of Health, providing systems development and integration, IT operations, and software acquisition support for chief information officers. He has experience in winning competitive procurements valued in the tens of millions, delivering large-scale IT solutions, and directing more than 100 professionals in projects that incorporated capability maturity model integration level 3 processes and earned value management.

— Source: Paragon Technology Group

 

EHR Association Elections Bring Leadership Together to Meet Challenges

The HIMSS Electronic Health Record Association (EHR Association), a collaboration of 41 EHR supplier companies, has announced new leadership for the coming year based on its recent annual elections. Results of this year’s elections return several executive committee members and add new members to maintain the balance of representation from companies that serve healthcare enterprises with both ambulatory and acute care EHRs and companies that focus solely on the ambulatory market.

Michele McGlynn, senior director of strategy and operations for Siemens Healthcare Health Services, who has served on the executive committee since 2009 and as chair of the government affairs workgroup from 2008 until June 2011, is the EHR Association’s new chair. McGlynn will work closely with Leigh Burchell, vice president of policy and government affairs for Allscripts, a member of the executive committee since 2011, and chair of the EHR Association public policy leadership workgroup, who was elected to serve as vice chair.

Joining the executive committee for two-year terms are Meg Marshall, senior manager of government health policy for Cerner Corporation and chair of the privacy and security workgroup; and Ginny Meadows, RN, executive director of McKesson’s program management office and lead on the quality measures sub-workgroup under the quality and clinician experience workgroup.

Returning to the executive committee to finish their two-year terms are Jason Colquitt, executive director of research services for Greenway Medical Technologies, Inc; Lauren Fifield, senior health policy advisor for Practice Fusion, Inc; and Mark Segal, PhD, vice president of government and industry affairs for GE Healthcare IT, vice chair emeritus of the EHR Association, and current vice chair of the public policy leadership workgroup.

Charlie Jarvis, vice president of healthcare services and government relations for NextGen Healthcare, completed his term as vice chair of the EHR Association but retains his seat on the executive committee through June 2013.

— Source: EHR Association