Large Physician Group Joins Michigan’s Growing Statewide HIE Network
Oakland Physician Network Services (OPNS) has joined the Michigan Health Information Network Shared Services (MiHIN), a statewide health information network that continues to grow with now its 13th health information exchange qualified organization.
Based in East Lansing, MiHIN is Michigan’s state-designated entity to improve health care quality, efficiency, and patient safety by sharing of electronic health information statewide, helping reduce costs for patients, providers, and payers. MiHIN is a nonprofit, public-private collaboration that includes stakeholders from the State of Michigan, health information exchanges (HIEs) that serve Michigan, health systems and providers, health plans/payers, pharmacies, and the Governor’s Health Information Technology Commission.
OPNS, based in Oakland County, Michigan, is an independent physician-owned and operated corporation comprised of over 425 primary care and specialty physicians. Being a qualified organization means that OPNS can now share patient care information directly through the statewide health information network with other healthcare organizations.
“Every new organization joining the statewide network makes it stronger,” Tim Pletcher, MiHIN executive director, said in a statement. “This means more of Michigan’s doctors will be able to share patient information through the statewide network, which in turn means fewer burdens on patients and doctors to coordinate care.”
“Connecting directly with MiHIN allows us to focus on custom tailoring and better enabling our physicians’ workflow,” Rodger Prong, executive director of Oakland Physician Network Services, said in a prepared statement. “OPNS is committed to offering our physicians the best resources to help them perform their jobs. Connecting directly to the statewide health information network is a logical next step to ensure we’re providing optimal services to help coordinate care.”
Statewide services available to physicians include admission, discharge, transfer notifications when a patient has been admitted or discharged to a care facility, medication reconciliation, public health reporting, quality measure reporting, patient matching services including matching patients to doctors and matching patients to their health information, and inclusion in MiHIN’s Health Directory, meaning that doctors’ current contact information including preferred electronic contact information will be available to other doctors.
