HealthMEDX and Spectrum Health Announce Live Interoperability and Patient Information Exchange

Ozark, Missouri (PRWEB) October 23, 2013-- Spectrum Health, a not-for-profit health system in West Michigan, and HealthMEDX, the leading provider of electronic medical record for LTPAC, have implemented standards-based interoperability to successfully automate the exchange of patient information between Spectrum Health’s inpatient settings and their post-acute care facilities. Spectrum Health is the first health system in the nation to achieve the electronic synchronization of the Master Person Index (MPI) and Medical Record Number (MRN) between acute and post-acute care settings, as well as the first to integrate HealthMEDX with Cerner and Epic EMR platforms to achieve the electronic transfer of patient Continuity of Care Documents (CCD). Spectrum Health owns and operates five post-acute care facilities, each utilizing HealthMEDX Vision as their electronic medical record (EMR), with their acute care facilities utilizing Cerner Millennium as their EMR technology. The HealthMEDX Exchange Platform enables standards-based interoperability by electronically moving patient and resident demographic and clinical information between post-acute providers and health systems, physician organizations and other ancillary providers. By facilitating interoperability between care settings, Spectrum Health caregivers are now able to efficiently identify those patients who will most benefit from continuing care in the post-acute setting and electronically transfer codified, actionable patient data directly from the hospital EMR into Vision. This allows the post-acute care providers to seamlessly continue the patient’s care plan after discharge from the hospital, thereby assuring continuity of care and the best possible outcomes. Spectrum Health leaders recognized that the ability to electronically exchange patient information between the various components of the healthcare continuum was becoming increasingly important to patient care, as well as to achieving greater operational efficiencies. “As patient acuity began to increase, we realized that the ability to better coordinate care between Spectrum Health’s acute and post-acute facilities was critical to achieving the best outcomes for our patients. At that time we challenged ourselves to integrate our major technology platforms to accomplish fully integrated EMR, which would then allow us to facilitate seamless care transitions,” said Jeff Mislevy, President, Spectrum Health Continuing Care. By enabling critical patient information to travel with the patient to and from care settings, Spectrum Health is driving smoother care transitions, expediting the time-to-care, and improving overall continuity of care. In addition to enhancing continuity of care, the new system is already having a significant impact on time-to-care. “By electronically connecting our hospitals, physicians and post-acute facilities, we are expediting time-to-care by up to 45 minutes for each admission. We expected to impact care and hoped to save 20 minutes on each admission. Our preliminary results have far exceeded our expectations,” said Tim Kelbel, Director, Information Technology, Spectrum Health. This time savings is the result of moving from manual to electronic referral, admission and assessment processes. In addition to impacting time-to-care and continuity of care, automating the pre-admission process will enable Spectrum Health to further drive quality by eliminating the errors associated with a paper-based process. “HealthMEDX is proud to partner with Spectrum Health to lead the industry with the first successful standards-based information exchange of the structured Continuity of Care Documents between acute and post-acute care settings. We are committed to supporting standards-based information technology that drives value to both patients and providers. We’re very excited about the success of Spectrum Health’s interoperability initiative and the impact on both patient care and operating efficiencies,” said Gerry McCarthy, Chief Strategy Officer, HealthMEDX. About Spectrum Health Spectrum Health is a not-for-profit health system, based in West Michigan, offering a full continuum of care through the Spectrum Health Hospital Group, which is comprised of 11 hospitals including Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital; 173 ambulatory and service sites; 960 advanced practice providers and employed physicians including members of the Spectrum Health Medical Group and West Michigan Heart physician groups; and Priority Health, a health plan. Spectrum Health is West Michigan’s largest employer with 20,800 employees. The organization provided $250 million in community benefit during its 2013 fiscal year. http://www.spectrumhealth.org About HealthMEDX HealthMEDX is the only vendor that provides an integrated, person-centric system that includes a full electronic medical record (EMR) and comprehensive billing system with integrated customer relationship management (CRM). The product, known as Vision, supports the entire Post-Acute Care continuum, including Long Term Care (Skilled Nursing, Assisted Living, and Independent Living), Rehab, Homecare and Hospice. The SaaS based architecture includes the HealthMEDX Exchange interoperability platform allowing post-acute providers to connect with hospitals, physicians and payers to address readmission management and facilitate care coordination across the care continuum. HealthMEDX Vision also offers an iOS-based mobile platform for the iPad® and iPhone® to allow physicians access to patient/resident health information from any location. HealthMEDX Vision 7.1.10 is a CCHIT Certified® 2011 Long Term Post-Acute Care EHR additionally certified for Home Health and Skilled Nursing Facility. HealthMEDX Vision 7.1.10 is ONC-ACB Certified as a Modular EHR under the hospital and eligible provider certification criteria. For full certification details, please visit http://www.healthmedx.com and click on the ONC-ATCB seal at the bottom of the page.