Exciting things are happening in Michigan, where a broad, regional health information exchange, or HIE, has been steadily evolving.
As many will recall, in 2007 the State of Michigan had provided multiple planning grants to explore the development of regional HIEs throughout Michigan. The counties of Genesee, Lapeer, and Shiawassee were designated as one of nine regions, also known as medical trading areas. Since that time, regional leaders from Genesys Health System, Hurley Medical Center, McLaren Regional Medical Center, Lapeer Regional Medical Center, and Memorial Healthcare have come together via the Greater Flint Health Coalition to investigate the best local strategies to establish HIE. While a lengthy process of planning and evaluation has transpired in the midst of an ever-changing landscape related to federal requirements for health information technology, electronic medical records, and meaningful use, the three Genesee County hospitals and the Greater Flint Health Coalition are pleased to announce a shared regional Health Information Exchange strategy in partnership with Michigan Health Connect.
Michigan Health Connect (MHC) seeks to advance the delivery of patient-focused health care by collaboratively leveraging information technology and clinical data exchange. It also encourages the adoption of EMR systems across the community and facilitates their meaningful use. MHC is led by a collaborative of 8 prominent health systems and currently consists of 47 hospital facilities whose service area spans over 80% of the counties in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. To date, MHC has deployed results delivery, laboratory and radiology ordering, and EMR interfaces to hundreds of physician practices statewide, including technology to enable referrals between practices.
Utilizing Medicity’s full HIE infrastructure, MHC will eventually have the ability to aggregate and match patient data to create longitudinal patient records while enabling participating health systems and their physician partners to maintain ownership of their own data. Via its growing clinical messaging platform, MHC has over 640 physician offices connected to receive results. These include EMR offices as well as paper-based offices whose results are placed into an electronic “drop-box”, replacing inefficient fax delivery.
In 2012 and beyond, each Genesee County hospital will begin implementation of Michigan Health Connect. For the full details of this announcement, please click on the following link Joint Announcement from Genesys Health System, McLaren Health Care & Hurley Medical Center.
