Healthcare IT News - October 2007 - (Page 14)

14 Healthcare IT News My two CentS ■ October 2007 www.HealthcareITNews.com look to Cincinnati to do sharing right C HealthBridge in Cincinnati, the largest health information exchange in the country. Or, perhaps we should say chalk another two up. HealthBridge is making it possible for two smaller community networks in the region to get off to a running start by letting them build on HealthBridge’s existing infrastructure. HealthBridge will share its data senders and suppliers, its clinical messaging system, services and staff for a monthly fee. Members of HealthBridge are: ■ Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, ■ The Health Alliance, ■ Mercy Health Partners, ■ St. Elizabeth Medical Center, and ■ TriHealth. Together they include 18 hospitals and represent nearly 90 percent of the community’s hospital sector activity. now, Bloomington, Ind. and Clark and Champaign Counties in Ohio will launch their own community health information exchanges by leveraging the HealthBridge infrastructure. HealthBridge brings in some revenue to help support a sustainable business model, and more entities are able to exchange patient data. This is what most people would call “win-win.” But, what HealthBridge has been able to achieve with its data exchange goes beyond ‘win-win.’ “We are all independent collaborating exchanges,” Keith Hepp, CFO and vice president of business development for HealthBridge, told Healthcare IT News last month. “It’s like a utility – one power plant for as many people. There are significant economies of scale that accrue to all parties.” Other data exchanges and regional health information organizations around the country would do well to look closely at what the Cincinnati group, founded in 1997, has been able to do and consider how they might adapt it for themselves. With so many RHIO and HIE halk one uP For efforts stalling – the most recent in Portland, Ore. – it’s critical to focus on the successes as a way to learn how to build it right, how to pay for it, how to keep it going. It’s also important to put competition to the side. Quality Health network in Western Colorado handled the competition factor and quick-launched its organization using a hybrid of federated and central models. It helped to eliminate the fear of sharing information with competitors who were participating side-by-side in the RHIO. HealthBridge has continued to build on its capabilities, leveraging its clinical messaging system to create a real-time automated disease reporting system for the Hamilton County Public Health Department. Hamilton County Public Health Commissioner Tim Ingram says the automation has provided a faster response time from labs and physician groups in reporting communicable diseases. www.HealthcareITNews.com Published in partnership with what Cincinnati-based HealthBridge has been able to achieve with its data exchange goes beyond ‘win-win.’ “As the system becomes more robust in time – as it encompasses more providers – the more powerful the data will be, the faster the turnaround and the greater the cost savings to report electronically,” Ingram said. Isn’t that what everyone wants? Perhaps there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to establishing healthcare data networks, but it seems that some best practices are evolving. Since everyone is talking about data sharing, how about developing some organized way of sharing data about what works and what doesn’t when building these organizations? That kind of exchange would save time, money, many headaches and perhaps even lives. ■ More at healthcareITNews.com e Connect: MoNeGaIN 1007 71 Pineland Drive, Suite 203 New Gloucester, ME 04260 T (207) 688-6270 F (207) 688-6273 Neil Rouda neil.rouda@medtechpublishing.com MedTech Publishing Company PUBLISHER EDITORIAL Jack Beaudoin, Editorial Director jack.beaudoin@medtechpublishing.com Patty Enrado, Contributing Editor patty.enrado@medtechpublishing.com Diana Manos, Senior Editor diana.manos@medtechpublishing.com Molly Merrill, Editorial Assistant molly.merrill@medtechpublishing.com Bernie Monegain, Editor bernie.monegain@medtechpublishing.com Richard Pizzi, Associate Editor richard.pizzi@medtechpublishing.com Eric Wicklund, Managing Editor eric.wicklund@medtechpublishing.com Nancy Vitucci nvitucci@himss.org EDITOR, HIMSS INSIDER EDITORIAL STAFF ● ADVERTISING John D. Payne, Vice President Sales john.payne@medtechpublishing.com T (207) 688-6270 F (207) 688-6273 Vincent Biunno, Eastern Sales Manager vincent.biunno@medtechpublishing.com T (201) 666-2118 F (201) 666-9660 Steven Loerch, Midwest Sales Manager steve.loerch@medtechpublishing.com T (847) 498-4520 F (847) 498-5911 Gordon Hunt, Western Sales Manager gordon.hunt@medtechpublishing.com T (949) 366-3192 F (949) 366-3193 E.J. Fechenda ellen.fechenda@medtechpublishing.com T (207) 688-6270 F (207) 688-6273 INSIDE ACCOUNT MANAGER WEST MIDWEST NORTHEAST SOUTHEAST PRODUCTION Karen Diekmann, Production Manager karen.diekmann@medtechpublishing.com MARKETING Danielle Hartley, Director, Marketing danielle.hartley@medtechpublishing.com READER SERVICES CoRReCtIonS Healthcare IT News is published by MedTech Publishing Company, LLC, which is solely responsible for its editorial content. Editors are expected to meet the highest professional standards for accuracy, objectivity, fairness and independence. Errors of fact are corrected as soon as the error is established and corrections are published in the medium in which the error appeared. Inquiries or disputes about the factual accuracy of the record should be directed to the editor. T (978) 671-0449 or cs-hitn@e-circ.net F (978)671-0460 Online: www.myHITN.com Postal mail: PO Box 9369 Lowell, MA 01853 Nicole Carter nicole.carter@medtechpublishing.com SUBSCRIPTION FULFILLMENT MANAGER CIRCULATION MANAGER CUSTOMER SERVICE healthcare IT News quotables “Health It involves no MoRe than implementing the kind of electronic information systems already used in many business sectors and putting it to work in healthcare.” - Sen. John Breaux, (D- La.) Health IT Now! Coalition Peggy Tashjian cs-hitn@e-circ.net REPRINTS Reprint Management Services T (717) 399-1900, ext. 139 “Ge supports nISt’s (national Institute of Standards and technology) increased involvement – but not at the expense of processes that are already working well, such as the Health Information technology Standards Panel [HItSP].” - Michael Raymer, general manager of global product strategy for GE Healthcare Integrated IT Solutions edItoRIal IndePendenCe Healthcare IT News is published in partnership with the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). HIMSS members are eligible to receive Healthcare IT News and related publications – both in print and online – as a beneﬁt of membership. With the exception of the HIMSS Insider, which is produced by the staff of HIMSS and appears within the pages of Healthcare IT News every month, HIMSS and its leadership exercise no control over the editorial content of the newspaper and related publications. Neil Rouda VICE PRESIDENTS PRESIDENT Jack Beaudoin John D. Payne Neil Rouda PRESIDENT “while we are encouraged that most candidates who have released healthcare reform plans included ideas for ﬁghting chronic disease, more needs to be done.” - Ken Thorpe, professor and chairman of the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University VICE PRESIDENTS Jack Beaudoin John D. Payne 2005 JESSE NEAL AWARD WINNER http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=7831 http://www.myHITN.com

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Healthcare IT News - October 2007 Contents Global Harmony Telegrowth New Rules Keeping Tabs What's Free? PHR of Its Own Intelligent Closing Practice Management Paper Tiger

Healthcare IT News - October 2007

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