Delaware
to Build First Statewide Health Information Network
Delaware Health Information Network Announces
Contract with Medicity
to build Statewide Health Information Exchange
Dover, Delaware, October
4, 2006 - The Delaware Health Information
Network (DHIN) and the Delaware Health Care Commission,
today announced a contract award to Medicity, Inc.
to build the first statewide health information exchange
to give physicians instant electronic access to patient
information at the time and place of care. The signing
of this contract is a critical step in making the
idea of electronic health records a reality in Delaware
and builds on the nearly $5 million in federal funding
that Senators Joe Biden and Tom Carper and U.S. Representative
Mike Castle have secured.
"Getting to the point of contracting with the
actual technology vendor is a tremendous step forward
in making electronic records part of our health care
system in Delaware. After the Delegation worked to
secure over $4 million to get this project off the
ground, I am so pleased the DHIN is able to use this
funding as leverage to move forward and implement
the project. Delaware is very much on its way to being
the first interoperable state for an electronic health
system -- something all patients will benefit from,"
said Congressman Castle.
Medicity will team with Plano, Texas-based Perot
Systems (NYSE: PER) to deliver specific infrastructure
portions of the project to the DHIN. Perot Systems
will provide data center services, technical and provider
help desks and outreach training, as well as on-site
customer service.
“The Delaware Health Information Network is
a great example of what is possible when we work together,”
stated Senator Tom Carper. “By expanding the
use of the latest health information technology and
giving health practitioners access to immediate, up-to-date
information, we can save lives, reduce medical errors
and cut health care costs. This program will help
bring Delaware’s health care system into the
twenty-first century.”
The intent of the DHIN Clinical Information Exchange
Utility is to provide secure, fast, and reliable exchange
of health information among the many health care providers
treating patients in the State of Delaware. First
to connect to the network will be Bayhealth Medical
Center, Beebe Medical Center, Christiana Care Health
System and LabCorp along with physician practices
across the State of Delaware.
“Delaware is being looked upon by the Federal
government and other states and communities as a leader
in health information exchange,” said Joseph
M. Letnaunchyn, DHIN Board chair. “No other
state in the nation has been able to fully integrate
health information on a statewide level. Because of
Delaware’s size and collaborative nature, the
first phase of the project is expected to go live
within the next nine months.”
The Utility is being funded by a public-private partnership
including participating health care organizations,
the State of Delaware and the Federal Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality in the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services.
“Delaware is fast becoming the ‘First
State’ in health information exchange,”
stated John C. Carney, Jr., Lt. Governor and Chair
of the Delaware Health Care Commission. “We’ve
had a remarkable number of providers, including hospitals,
labs and doctors, participate in this process. Our
size and the great sense of community that exists
here have resulted in a lot of people doing high quality
work in creating this exciting opportunity. We hope
to become a model for the rest of the country in improving
health care quality, patient safety and cost.”
“Believe it or not,” explains Medicity
CEO J. Kipp Lassetter, “in an age of technological
sophistication, this is the first time any state has
undertaken to connect all of the major sources of
patient clinical information in order to improve the
safety and timeliness of patient care. We believe
this undertaking is indicative of the leadership in
Delaware. Medicity has been perfecting the technology
to accomplish this goal for the better part of a decade.
We have demonstrated its effectiveness in health care
organizations on a national scale for several years,
but this is the first time anyone has applied it to
public health concerns statewide across organizations—each
with different collections of clinical systems, representing
dozens of vendors in total.”
The Utility will provide a streamlined results distribution
system. Currently, health care providers receive lab,
radiology and other test results via telephone, fax,
courier, and in some cases through a web portal that
the provider must sign into and query for his/her
patient’s test results. The Utility will allow
the provider to decide in what format he/she wants
to receive all test results and will deliver those
results to the provider in real-time based on their
chosen method, regardless at which participating entity
the test was performed. In most cases, there will
be little to no added investment to the provider,
and the result will be a more efficient, cost-effective
and streamlined process for the practice. Those practices
that have Internet access may choose to have results
delivered to a secure mailbox where they can track
and manage their patients’ test results as well
as make referrals to other providers using the Utility.
Practices with electronic medical records can have
results delivered directly to the patient’s
electronic record in a secure manner. Practitioners
also will receive alerts when a result is outside
normal limits.
“The technology is there,” Lassetter
elaborates, “but education and political barriers
have hindered the deployment of solutions like this
one.” DHIN is a public-private cooperative organized
for the purpose of facilitating care quality and systemic
efficiencies. “DHIN has done an enviable job
of bringing together all of the constituents in Delaware’s
health care community and creating a plan that delivers
real value to every participant, especially patients
who will benefit from the improvements in care quality,”
Dr. Lassetter notes.
According to Janice E. Tildon-Burton, M.D., President
of the Medical Society of Delaware, “The greatest
benefit of the Utility is that physicians will have
the information they need, when they need it, at their
fingertips. The potential for avoiding unnecessary
tests, given the delays and inefficiencies of the
current, paper-based system, will yield better, more
cost effective care for our patients.”
Medicity was selected to build this network through
a competitive bid that included two rounds of evaluation,
narrowing aspirants to a final field of three. The
decision was announced this month after the extendable
six-year contract was finalized. The first phases
of the project will be operational within the next
six to nine months.
About DHIN
The Delaware Health Information Network
(DHIN) was established by the Delaware General Assembly
in 1997 as a public instrumentality of the State to
advance the creation of a statewide health information
and electronic data interchange network for public
and private use. It functions under the direction
of the Delaware Health Care Commission. The DHIN is
a public-private partnership, which provides the organizational
infrastructure to support a clinical information sharing
utility. In 2005, the Health Care Commission was awarded
a five-year federal contract from the Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality to develop the DHIN Clinical
Information Exchange Utility. This funding was augmented
in 2006 with a $2.0 million appropriation in the State
of Delaware Bond and Capital Improvements budget.
The DHIN’s community-based partners have matched
the State funds for an additional $2.16 million in
the current fiscal year. The Utility is expected to
go live in early 2007 with added functions and new
users to be added over the following three-year period.
For more information please visit www.state.de.us/dhcc/information/dhin.shtml.
About Medicity
With a single point of access to multiple
data sources within and across healthcare enterprises,
Medicity, Inc. empowers patients, providers and health
plans with essential healthcare information, resulting
in improved clinical workflow, enhanced patient safety
and reduced costs. Medicity, Inc. serves more than
1,800 healthcare organizations globally and has been
connecting healthcare since 1998. For more information
please visit www.medicity.com.
Contact
Amendola
Communications for Medicity
Jodi Amendola, 480-664-8412 ext. 11
jamendola@acmarketingpr.com
>> Back to Top
|
