Most health information exchanges have so far focused on sharing data between provider organizations. Now one of the leading HIEs in the country, the Delaware Health Information Network (DHIN), is rolling out a consumer-facing program, including three tools that can connect Delawareans with their personal healthcare information across a variety of platforms.
Health Check Connect is the cornerstone of DHIN’s consumer engagement efforts. The personal health record (PHR) will help consumers access the same information that their medical caregivers see. Personal health information reported into DHIN’s Community Health Record – test results, doctors’ notes and imaging studies, for example – will be made available through a secure portal for a patient to see and to add to with prescription information, vital statistics and data from personal health trackers.
The PHR can help patients chart their progress towards reaching health goals, allow for the secure exchange of messages with healthcare providers and provide a dashboard for at-a-glance health profiles, according to DHIN, which was launched in 2007. Today it serves all of Delaware’s acute care hospitals and almost 100 percent of the state’s medical providers.
A new Health Check Alert app will send a secure text message to advise a subscriber of several important items: that a medical result has been delivered to his or her doctor; that a medical professional has accessed the patient’s medical record; or that the subscriber has been admitted to the emergency room or hospital.
DHIN said this free service will offer greater transparency of a patient’s healthcare information and may help to accelerate the identification of potentially fraudulent activity and abuse of health insurance information. It could also improve care through better communication around patient care plans.
DHIN is also promoting access to telemedicine service through an online service called MDLive. It provides around-the-clock access to a Delaware board-certified physician. Doctors speak with patients by phone or video chat to diagnose non-emergency medical conditions and prescribe treatment, as appropriate. The service is available for $14.95 a month for an individual or $17.95 per month for a family.
To introduce consumers to DHIN and its patient-facing tools, the organization launched an integrated marketing campaign earlier this spring.
“When you provide transparency, you reduce the stress people feel when making healthcare decisions,” said Randy Farmer, DHIN’s chief operating officer, in a prepared statement. “Our goal with this consumer-facing program is to bring patients closer to their health information.”
