States share successes, challenges, lessons learned

The 2014 State Healthcare IT Connect Summit early this month included presentations detailing several success stories for information exchange.

Kentucky and Maine increasingly are harnessing data from various state agencies to improve care delivery and reign in healthcare costs.

“While planning technology for Kentucky’s health benefit exchange (KHBE), we really hadn’t stepped backed and thought how that affects the whole enterprise solution,” said Shari Randle, director of the Division of Systems Management at the Kentucky Office of Administrative and Technology Services.

But under the guidance of Kentucky CIO Rodney Murphy, the state developed a “house” of quality health information, which is built on a foundation of enterprise tools with pillars representing the Kentucky health information exchange (HIE), Kentucky Medicaid Management Information Systems, KHBE, support programs and public health programs.

“The pillars, or program areas, are separate and data are not exchanged except through interfaces for specific information,” she said. “The roof of the house is a single citizen’s portal, where you can come to a single sign-on and access any data related to you.”

Alabama is finding that buy-in to state-sponsored health IT initiatives and health information exchanges requires developing in-person, on-the-ground connections with Medicaid providers.

“When our health information exchange [HIE] came out, it was sort of bad timing,” said Dan Roach, III, MD, acting director of the Center for Strategic Health Innovation at the University of South Alabama.

In his previous role as state health IT coordinator, Roach worked to connect hospitals and other providers to the state HIE, but they still were handling their own technology challenges.

“We had to change focus and work on the areas where we were more technically and emotionally ready,” he said.

The state launched a pilot to connect more technically advanced and motivated physicians to the HIE. In this effort, the state met with physicians in their own offices to handle technology issues head-on.

“Don’t underestimate the value of being with people in person. It’s important to find ways to connect them with regional extension centers. They create real relationships with people to help them through the pain and suffering,” he said.

I hope you followed our coverage of this special conference and the rest of our HIE news. Thank you for reading.

Beth Walsh

Clinical Innovation + Technology editor