Healthcare information exchange just got a whole lot easier for the people of the Keystone State as the Pennsylvania eHealth Partnership Authority has announced that the Keystone Health Information Exchange (KeyHIE) is now connected to the PA Patient & Provider Network (P3N).

“This is a huge step forward for patients, who will benefit from improvements in care coordination, patient safety, and healthcare quality,” said Authority Acting Executive Director Kelly Hoover Thompson. “Adding HealthShare Exchange of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Mount Nittany Exchange, andClinicalConnect Health Information Exchange, five health information organizations across the state are expected to be connected to the P3N network this summer. This will bring to fruition the promise of using electronic health information exchange to improve patients’ health.”

With the integration of KeyHIE and P3N, healthcare providers are able to access patient data that is stored on anywhere in the P3N system as well as having access to the Public Health Gateway, a single database that reports on the states registries including information on cancer, immunization, disease surveillance, electronic laboratory reporting and clinical quality measurement.

“Through the P3N, KeyHIE is excited to be able to offer our members access to a broader network of patient clinical information,” said Kim Chaundy, Director of Operations at KeyHIE and Information Technology Director at Geisinger Health System. “For our connected healthcare providers, this means broader access to critical patient information when and where it is needed. This benefits local patients traveling beyond our ‘home’ region and those patients visiting central Pennsylvania from elsewhere in the state.”

KeyHIE is the second to join the P3N network, which had been joined by St. Luke’s University Health Network’s eVantageHealth in 2014.