As states consider their future healthcare infrastructure needs, creating a health information exchange is a critical decision. With more and more healthcare organizations digitizing their patient records and medical images and with federal funds being made available to fund their creation, HIEs (Health Information Exchanges) are beginning to emerge around the country.
While it is our view that the year 2010 is a year of planning and evaluation for HIEs, Dell Services has already begun taking steps to develop and provide the services and vision required to become a premier provider of HIE services, including:
- Economic Reality —Most organizations cannot afford to invest now in order to reap the benefits of the ARRA stimulus package in a few years. Providing HIE services in a subscription model nearly eliminates the need for capital, hence, increasing adoption
- Full Service Provider —Packaging an HIE offering with an EMR offering and wrapping it with consulting provides a single point of contact for our customers. Providing the choice of an HIE or EMR product allows us to offer the right solution for the challenge
- Evolution Options —With the understanding that the HIE landscape will go through significant changes as we evolve to a Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN), Dell Services will offer customers multiple models, as well as the services to evolve from one model to another with minimal change and expense
To do this, we are building on our HIE success domestically, as well as internationally.
First statewide HIE. In May 2007, the first statewide HIE in America went live with Dell Services providing the operational services, and our technology alliance partner, Medicity, providing the HIE software. This HIE currently supports more than 2,000 users, representing 98 physician practices across 196 locations, exchange of more than 13 million unique encounters, and greater than 40 million transactions a year. Functionality includes the ability to exchange laboratory and pathology data, reports, face sheets, and discharge summaries, as well as linking to public health reporting organizations for bio-surveillance.
HIE for disaster preparedness. Dell Services and its alliance partner, Medicity, began implementation of an HIE, in the summer of 2009 in a Gulf Coast state. Dell Services is able to offer the residents and healthcare organizations along the coast a solution that will help prevent the issues that arose when Hurricane Katrina devastated six coastal counties, washing away many paper medical records. Medicity provides the HIE functionality, while Dell Services hosts the solution in its Plano Technology Center (PTC).
Let Dell Services help you evaluate your future healthcare infrastructure needs and answer the question about whether an HIE makes sense for your residence and state.Dell Services can help develop the proof of concept,address initial funding and sustaining funding and should you decide an HIE is a good option, we have some of the best expertise in the country in building and managing successful HIEs.
