Indiana HIE Now Delivers Continuity of Care Documents

The Indiana Health Information Exchange (IHIE) has announced that it now delivers 20,000 reports each month aimed at improving transitions of care for patients.

These reports, or continuity of care documents (CCDs), can enhance communication and coordination as a patient moves from one facility to another, but its delivery poses a technology challenge that IHIE has been able to overcome, the organization’s officials say.

The ability to deliver this kind of document required an enhancement to IHIE’s existing technology, specifically its DOCS4DOCS (D4D) electronic results delivery service.  It was supported, in part, through federal funding from Indiana’s HIE program.

Seventy-two of IHIE’s network of 102 hospitals have signed up for this service, including the state’s largest health systems.  It is expected that more will be participating in the coming months. In May 2014, more than 20,000 CCDs were delivered on behalf of the participating hospitals, which is in addition to the 14 million test results and other reports that IHIE already delivers each month through the D4D service, IHIE officials say.

Since the participating hospitals are utilizing their electronic health records (EHRs) to send these documents through IHIE, they can fulfill certain requirements by the federal government to enhance public health, patient engagement and transition of care objectives within Stage 2 of meaningful use.

“IHIE has been able to solve an extremely difficult problem in the healthcare system by coming up with an elegant and relatively easy solution for our customers to help them meet these requirements,” John Kansky, interim president and CEO of the Indiana Health Information Exchange, said in a statement.  “We are able to work within providers’ existing workflow, without the need for a separate, secure email based solution.  The breadth and expertise of IHIE’s unique network has enabled us to offer these kinds of “value-added” solutions, which would be difficult to achieve on a smaller scale.”