HIE geared to underserved children

The Children’s Care Alliance (CCA) is creating a health information exchange (HIE)—branded as Virtual Health Village—for underserved children in the Lehigh Valley area of northeastern Pennsylvania.

Bolstered by business community support, the HIE “represents a first-of-its-kind collaboration between healthcare organizations and the education community and is poised to move toward improving the healthcare of children in the region,” according to an announcement.

The effort stems from a desire for better care coordination in an area where 27 percent of the Bethlehem area and Allentown school district students change schools each year, contributing to the problem of fragmented pediatric records.

The alliance hopes to improve care coordination for chronic conditions including asthma and diabetes, and boost immunization rates. The CCA also anticipates that the HIE will bring greater patient and provider satisfaction and lower healthcare costs by reducing duplicate tests and procedures. In addition to cutting student absence from school, the HIE will benefit parents and regional employers with fewer missed workdays, according to the announcement.

Alere Accountable Care Solutions (ACS), which is developing the exchange, will build technology allowing the exchange of student EHRs between different hospital emergency rooms, clinics, physician offices and school districts in Lehigh Valley.

"Many children living in this area suffer from chronic conditions including asthma and obesity. The healthcare systems and community organizations need to rally together," said Mike Cirba, CIO, Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network and current CCA chairperson.