Ten states establish infrastructure for exchange

As part of an effort to help make sure their residents’ health information is available after a hurricane or other widespread disaster, four Gulf states have partnered with six states in the East and Midwest to help patients and providers access critical health information when they are unable to visit their regular doctors or hospitals.

Working with the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), health information exchange (HIE) programs in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Michigan, Wisconsin and West Virginia announced their partnership to allow for the exchange of health information among providers caring for patients who are displaced from their homes.

All of the state HIE programs participating in the initiative currently have established at least one operational interstate connection and are working with other states including Arkansas and Mississippi, according to a release. The 10-state initiative is made possible through IT infrastructure provided through Direct, the tool developed by an ONC-led collaboration with broad health IT industry participation that allows for the secure exchange of health information over the internet.

“Through disasters like Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy and large tornadoes in Alabama and Joplin, Missouri, in 2011 and more recently in Moore, Oklahoma, we have learned the importance of protecting patients’ health records through electronic tools like health information exchanges,” said Farzad Mostashari, MD, ScM, national coordinator for health IT. “Patients are better off when states and health information exchange organizations work together to ensure that health information can follow patients when they need it the most.”

A guidebook, Regional Health e-Decisions: A Guide to Connect Health Information Exchange in Primary Care, was published by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, can also help primary care clinicians connect their patients’ electronic health records to a local HIE hub and regional health information organizations.

The Southeast Regional Health IT and Health Information Exchange Collaboration (SERCH) is leading the collaborative effort. SERCH was funded through ONC’s State Health Policy Consortium and its members include Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia. Since SERCH began in April 2010, similar collaborations, using a variety of methods, have helped to resolve cross-border barriers toward facilitating the multi-state exchange of health information.

“The SERCH effort will enable healthcare providers to contact a patient’s health plans and available health care providers for information about the patient’s medical history when it is most needed,” said Nicole Lurie, MD, assistant secretary for Preparedness and Response. “But patients can help protect their own information and that of their children by saving it electronically.”