Mid-America Regional Council Expands Safety Net Clinic Health Information Exchange Initiative
Cranbury, NJ, August 28, 2014 -- The Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) and BluePrint Healthcare IT announced the expansion of MARC’s Health Information Exchange Initiative by adding a second group of six safety net organizations in Kansas and Missouri. Working with three hospitals and three Health Information Organizations, the initial group of ten safety net organizations achieved the first goal of digital care coordination, replacing the exchange of paper forms and faxes with secure electronic DIRECT Messaging. The safety nets include a mix of providers focused on delivering primary care and care in mental health, public health, substance abuse assessment, health education and health service coordination.
DIRECT Messaging enables the safety nets to electronically provide medical information along with a referral to another organization. This ensures records arrive on time and eliminates the need to carry them from one facility to another. The second group of safety nets is working to improve patient outcomes by increasing patient access to medication management, health education and subsidized prescription services.
In conjunction with reaching a larger number of safety nets in the second phase, funding support for the program has expanded from the REACH Healthcare Foundation, Wyandotte Health Foundation and Hall Family Foundation to include the Sosland Foundation and the John and Effie Speas Memorial Trust, Bank of America Trustee. Two of three regional Health Information Organizations—Kansas Health Information Network (KHIN), Lewis and Clark Information Exchange (LACIE)—have already participated in the program, with the third, Missouri Health Connect (MHC), expected to participate in the future.
“BluePrint Healthcare IT demonstrated its leadership and consultative approach in working with the individual Safety Net clinics, HIOs, and hospitals, while keeping MARC and the foundations up-to-date on progress,” said MARC Regional Health Care Initiative Director Scott Lakin. Lakin further commented, “BluePrint’s extensive use of readiness assessments for the safety nets and its communications process were key in laying the appropriate groundwork and ensuring the process moved forward and reached its objectives.”
The single use case approach originally used with each group provides a structured, focused framework, which enables MARC to measure progress, develop best practices and lay out a road map for each expansion phase. The use case, initially selected through facilitated meetings, leverages each safety net’s electronic medical record and DIRECT messaging system.
“The BluePrint team’s passion about working with MARC and the safety nets in Kansas City to improve the lives of patients,” said BluePrint President and CEO Vikas Khosla, “matches the intensity of the focus of the organizations involved in improving healthcare for its population. We’re dedicated to applying our Optimization Framework to help each organization meet its goals for better patient care.”
Related Webinar: You can listen to the Webinar “Safety Nets Achieve Care Coordination using HIE: Breakthrough and Stakeholders in Kansas City region,” recorded on August 7, 2014. http://www.blueprinthit.com/BPwebsite2014/webinars/2014-08-07-MARC
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