HealthShare Exchange (HSX), the nonprofit health information exchange (HIE) for the Greater Philadelphia area, has increased its reach by expanding data services to more healthcare provider organizations in New Jersey, officials announced last week.
Following on the addition last year of services to Jefferson Health Cherry Hill, Stratford, and Washington Township (the former Kennedy Health System), in New Jersey, HSX is now exchanging patient health information with Penn Medicine’s Princeton Health and will soon do so with VirtuaPhysicianPartners, the clinically integrated network of practices associated with Virtua Health System, based in southern New Jersey.
HealthShare Exchange has also begun sending patient data to the New Jersey Health Information Network (NJHIN), the entity designated by New Jersey to coordinate health information exchange in the state, its officials announced.
“With the first-rate medical centers and providers in this market, a significant number of patients travel between southern New Jersey and the counties of the Philadelphia area for their care,” Bill Hanson, CMIO and vice president at Penn Medicine noted in a statement. “It’s important that their medical information travel with them — or in this case ahead of them — so that it is available to support treatment in any health venue they visit in our region. As a founding member of the exchange, this is the value that we receive from HSX.”
Indeed, about a quarter of patients who receive care on the Pennsylvania side of the Greater Philadelphia medical service area also receive care in New Jersey. With data on more than 9 million of the region’s patients, and with 14,000 providers and nearly all Philadelphia-area hospitals participating in the exchange, HSX is now steadily expanding services across the river in New Jersey, HSX officials noted.
In addition, according to HSK leaders, exchange data is available to other HSX members that have a presence in New Jersey, including the physician practices of St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, as well as those of Jefferson Health and Penn Medicine. Participants in the state also include long-term care organizations such as Genesis and Holy Redeemer.
“These connections are logical extensions of HSX’s growing role as the health information exchange for our broader metro region and wider Pennsylvania and New Jersey medical service area,” added Neil Lubarsky, senior vice president for finance, strategic partnerships, ventures and innovation at Jefferson Health, a founding member of HSX.
“As the only health information organization sanctioned in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and with offices in both states, we are in a unique position to be the facilitator of cross-state exchange,” said Martin Lupinetti, president of HSX. “We are proud to take on this dual-state role as we seek to steadily add to our business partnerships supporting data sharing across the region that continues to make patient care better.”
