Healthcare information exchanges (HIE) are becoming increasingly pervasive in the United States, a development that is providing medical professionals at participating facilities with easier access to essential healthcare information within a given geographic region or community.
Though Delaware has had an operational HIE running since May 2007, The Delaware Health Information Network (DHIN) recently announced that the state is now the first in the country to achieve full participation with all of its acute care hospitals joining a statewide community health record.
According to Jan Lee of the DHIN, all of Delaware's acute care hospitals as well as all 46 of the state's skilled nursing facilities and 86 percent of individual healthcare providers will be participating, aggregating important clinical data logged at any time so that participating facilities can access it in one comprehensive database.
"A statewide health information exchange gives Delaware the ability to improve the quality of care while managing the cost of care," said Delaware Governor Jack Markell. "This is the fundamental technological foundation we need to build a system of focused and managed healthcare that keeps people healthy. The use of technology in health care is vital to improved quality and reduced costs."
Considering the many ways in which the community health exchange will benefit Delaware healthcare practitioners, facility managers in other parts of the country looking to keep up with these technological advancements would benefit from deploying the services of a medical technology consulting company. These professionals can implement and train staff on a software suite including electronic medical records, electronic billing and eprescribing software.
By easing the transition to digital medicine, individual facilities can increase their attractiveness to state HIEs and leverage data from other local practices to ultimately optimize the care afforded to patients.
Microwize Technology is a leading healthcare IT consultant offering products such as electronic medical records software and medical billing software from top providers like Allscripts and McKesson, including McKesson's Medisoft, Lytec and Practice Choice products.