The Georgia Regional Academic Community Health Information Exchange (GRAChIE), the largest health information exchange (HIE) organization in Georgia, has joined the Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaborative (SHIEC), a national collaborative representing HIEs.
GRAChIE, which serves as a public exchange founded by multiple healthcare organizations within the state, is now the 60th member to join SHIEC. Collectively, SHIEC members serve almost 75 percent of the U.S. population.
Tara Cramer, executive director for GRAChIE, said the organization joined SHIEC in order to collaborate with other HIEs.
“People familiar with HIEs often think of us in terms of data sharing and data transactions. But if you’re working in this industry, you know it’s so much more. We’re called on to stay one step ahead of where the health IT field is heading,” Cramer said in a statement. “To achieve this, we joined SHIEC to collaborate with other HIEs for the benefit of the Georgia healthcare community. HIEs are all working to improve care coordination in our regions while also helping our providers maximize their revenue by satisfying requirements for MIPS and MACRA. By sharing lessons learned and best practices, HIEs can elevate each other and foster widespread data sharing across the U.S.”
To support the Georgia community, GRAChIE works closely with healthcare providers within the state, and connects to the Georgia Health Information Network (GaHIN) as well as with HIEs in adjacent states. It also participates in the eHealth Exchange to provide its members with the ability to share data electronically with federal agencies.
In addition to providing support for care coordination, GRAChIE offers its provider community with widespread data sharing to support long term care, home health, hospice, mental health, behavioral health, and it even works with nontraditional care givers such as regional jails.
“It’s exciting to have another HIE powerhouse join SHIEC,” Kelly Hoover Thompson, CEO for SHIEC, said in a statement. “Our members are blazing the trail for nationwide health data sharing, and with each HIE that joins, our collective reach expands. By having HIEs collaborate, we’re able to jointly tackle the biggest challenge in health IT, namely the ability to effectively and securely share it.”
