Georgia Health Information Network (GaHIN), Georgia’ statewide health information exchange (HIE), and Alabama’s One Health Record have partnered to form a state-to-state information exchange.
It marks the second interstate HIE connection for GaHIN, which connected with the South Carolina HIE last year, and is one of only a few interstate connections in the nation.
"Healthcare doesn't stop at the state line, so we need to ensure that physicians in both Georgia and Alabama have real-time access to patient health information at the point of care," Denise Hines, executive director of GaHIN, said in a statement. "Having medical history and pertinent patient information from the neighboring states can help improve care quality and save time by providing critical information at the point of care during non-urgent and emergency situations."
The Georgia and Alabama HIEs both leverage a federated exchange architecture at the edge that does not necessitate the creation of new data warehouses or a single data location, but rather allows data to remain with the original providers and facilities until an authorized request for patient information is received, according to a GaHIN press release.
One Health Record created the infrastructure for exchanging health information in Alabama through a grant awarded to Medicaid in 2009 by the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC).
Established in 2009, GaHIN has successfully connected members consisting of regional HIEs, hospital systems, physician groups and individual practitioners. The Georgia network currently has more than 18 million demographic patient records accessible to providers. GaHIN is connected to the national eHealth Exchange and is also a member of DirectTrust, which enables its members to securely exchange information nationally with other providers who are using Direct.
