SSM Health Care–St. Louis, a not-for-profit integrated healthcare system, and Healthcare Clinic walk-in heath centers at select Walgreens retail pharmacies will launch a collaboration in January 2014 that will they say improve access to care and increase care coordination for patients. Under the agreement, health information of patients who currently see an SSM Health Care primary care physician and visit a Healthcare Clinic at select Walgreens in the St. Louis, Mo. region will be able to be shared between the two organizations.
With patient consent, Healthcare Clinic nurse practitioners will be able to access information, such as allergies and medications, through sharing of an electronic health record going live later in 2014. SSM Health Care physicians will receive their patient’s discharge reports through this information sharing platform, so they are aware of the clinic visit and can provide any necessary follow-up care.
The collaboration will initially start at the following Healthcare Clinic at 12 Walgreens locations in Missouri.
In a separate development, Walgreen Co. began the rollout in September of analytics platform (the Electronic Patient Assessment Solution Suite, or ePASS, supplied by Inovalon, Inc., Bowie, Md.) at its network of walk-in clinics that is says will help reduce gaps in care. That information is limited to encounters with patients who are covered by payers working with Inovalon.
