DULUTH, Minn.-- Community Health Information Collaborative (CHIC), Minnesota’s state-certified Health Information Organization, is pleased to announce a partnership with Orion Health. CHIC has selected Orion Health technology to power HIE-Bridge, Minnesota’s state-certified health information exchange (HIE) that allows providers to locate and access key clinical information that is vital when making medical decisions. Through HIE-Bridge, health providers across Minnesota have access to authorized patient information through a secure web-based information exchange platform. CHIC’s overall objective of partnering with Orion Health is to enhance clinical care coordination between all healthcare organizations and eligible providers to improve patient outcomes, save patient and provider time, and to conserve precious healthcare dollars.

With more than twenty years of global experience with HIE and electronic health record (EHR) implementations, Orion Health provides simple, flexible and extendable solutions to support a diverse array of HIE requirements. Orion Health has achieved a number of successful statewide HIE implementations of its innovative software, including: Maine, Alaska, Louisiana, North Carolina, New Mexico, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and North Dakota.

Orion Health’s HIE services for CHIC and HIE-Bridge will include the exchange of clinical patient information, medication and immunization histories, laboratory and diagnostic test results, and in the future, clinical data analytics.

Those currently using HIE-Bridge services will be migrated over to Orion Health’s infrastructure in the coming months. Healthcare organizations seeking to join HIE-Bridge will begin to be added in the fourth quarter of 2013. Recipients of the MN Department of Health grants for e-Health Connectivity should be queuing up for implementation dates to meet the December 31, 2013 deadline.

"CHIC engaged in a vigorous RFP process as we researched HIE software vendors. We selected Orion Health due to its outstanding customer service and breadth of solutions from which we can build a much more mature HIE-BridgeCONNECT offering for our clients in Minnesota," said Cheryl M. Stephens, PhD, president and CEO, CHIC. "CHIC’s vision of notifications to providers of emergency room visits by patients and having a longitudinal patient record that could be accessed quickly, securely and configured to a physician’s viewing preference, plus many more enhancements, is now possible with the Orion Health solution."

“CHIC’s vision for a truly connected healthcare landscape across the state of Minnesota is both ambitious and admirable,” said Paul Viskovich, president of Orion Health North America.

“As a key partner in this endeavor, Orion Health will bring its global experience to bear to ensure that CHIC member providers and their patients realize the full benefits of seamless health information exchange.”

About Orion Health Inc.

Founded in 1993 in Auckland, New Zealand, Orion Health is the only global, independently owned eHealth technology company. With an inherent ability to interconnect a wide variety of healthcare information systems, Orion Health has become the world’s leading provider of health information exchange (HIE) and healthcare integration solutions. Orion Health has extensive experience in the design and installation of complex systems within demanding healthcare environments. Today, Orion Health products and solutions are implemented in more than 30 countries, used by hundreds of thousands of clinicians, and help facilitate care for tens of millions of patients. Clinicians, provider facilities and OEM partners rely on Orion Health to facilitate data exchange between hospitals, health systems, HIEs, and affiliated providers and medical devices, resulting in improved care coordination, increased cost savings and efficiencies, and enhanced quality of care.

In the U.S., Orion Health™ HIE provides the technology backbone for state and regional HIEs across the country. Orion Health Rhapsody® Integration Engine is used by nearly all state and local health departments for public health reporting. Customers include Catholic Health Initiatives, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Beacon Community of the Inland Northwest, Geisinger Health System, Inland Empire HIE, Kaiser Permanente, Lahey Clinic, Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum, Lehigh Valley Health Network, Maine HealthInfoNet, Massachusetts Health Information Highway, New Hampshire Health Information Organization and St. Vincent’s HealthCare. For more information, visit www.orionhealth.com. Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

About CHIC

CHIC is a unique, 15-year-old, nonprofit partnership with more than 170 hospitals, clinics, long-term care facilities, tribal health facilities, higher education institutions and public health agencies in Minnesota as its members. The work of CHIC maximizes the health care services members are able to provide through innovative use of technology.

CHIC also has a long history of working closely with federal and state governments to help develop and implement strategies in health information technology. As part of this history, CHIC:

• Since January 2011 is the only certified state-wide Health Information Organization in Minnesota.
• Was one of only 18 organizations nationwide chosen to work with the Office of the National Coordinator to develop, design and test the Nationwide Health Information Network (now known as eHealth Exchange). Through this work has contracted with the Social Security Administration to exchange medical records electronically for disability determinations and worked with the U.S. Veteran’s Administration to exchange electronic health records between the VA and private providers.
• Under contract with the MN Department of Health, developed and implemented a regional healthcare emergency preparedness program in partnership with hospitals, clinics, long-term care, tribal health and public health agencies for northeastern MN.
• Worked with the MN Department of Health in designing the MN Immunization Information Connection (MIIC) and continues to provide regional coordination services to 18 counties in MN.
• Worked with Medicare fiscal intermediaries to offer DDE communication tools to rural hospitals.