A new state health information exchange has officially signed on with the eHealth Exchange, bringing an additional 16 million patient records into the national HIE pool. 

 

Georgia Health Information Network announced this past week that it was joining the already 70 participants live with the eHealth Exchange, formerly the Nationwide Health Information Network, a non-profit public-private initiative created by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT to spur healthcare quality and efficiency by establishing a platform for exchanging health data across borders. The participants, which include more than 1,000 hospitals and 6,000 medical groups and 60 million patients, exchange millions of transactions each year.

 

[See also: Nation's eHealth Exchange stands up.]

 

Officials say the new partnership will allow the some 16 million patient records in the Georgia network to be readily exchanged across the continuum of care, ultimately leading to improved care, a decline in readmissions, reductions in duplicate testing, prescription compliance and continuity of care. 

 

"With GaHIN's national connectivity comes Georgia's ability to share medical information immediately and securely with neighboring states, and eventually more states across the U.S.," said Denise Hines, executive director of GaHIN, in a July 24 press statement. "This expanded connectivity allows for the delivery of the right health information to the right place at the right time – no matter where the patient is receiving care – across a robust national network."

 

Currently, GaHIN, established in 2009, has connected members consisting of regional HIEs, hospital systems, physician groups and individual practitioners that currently reach counties across the state. 

 

[See also: HIE network sees record participation.]

 

Officials note that GaHIN members have access to all existing and future services, including lab routing; admission, discharge and transfer alerts; referral requests; and secure messaging.