DANVILLE - Doctors in emergency departments across central and northeast Pennsylvania are now able to utilize the Keystone Health Information Exchange (KeyHIE®) to access a patient's heart monitoring results from Geisinger wherever or whenever the patient receives care.
"Providing physicians with nearly real-time information about a patient's heart condition, including results from ECGs, Holter monitoring and stress tests, is critical to ensuring a patient receives the right care at the right time," said Charles Sawyer, M.D., chief health information officer, Geisinger Health System.
Sawyer said the idea is to create a seamless information exchange between primary care physicians, specialists, inpatient caretakers and back to the primary care physician following treatment. Home health or long-term care providers can also be included in the information exchange when necessary.
"Achieving a seamless health information exchange requires an interface engine and connectors, as well as software that allows different electronic medical records to talk to each other," said Jim Younkin, director, KeyHIE. "We expect KeyHIE to include heart monitoring results from non-Geisinger, KeyHIE-participating hospitals in the coming months."
KeyHIE is one of the nation's oldest and largest computer-based health information exchanges in the U.S. Founded in 2005, it serves more than 4 million patients through a network of 22 hospitals, 174 physician practices, 28 home health locations and 61 long-term care facilities in more than 53 Pennsylvania counties. It ensures patient health information, such as drug allergies, prescriptions, medical conditions and lab and test results is available to healthcare providers participating in the patient's care.
Additionally, KeyHIE has formed partnerships with hundreds of participating providers, offering patient-consented access to more than 4.5 million electronic health records through a single online login.
KeyHIE follows strict patient privacy and safety standards and participation requires patient consent.
"Right now, more people need to know about KeyHIE's ability to provide critical health information when and where it is needed to ensure patients get the best care possible," said Younkin. "Obviously the more active users we have, the better for everyone."
To find out more about KeyHIE, visit www.keyhie.org