The Golden Spike - The Commonwealth's Entry into Health Information Exchange

Today was truly a monumental day for Baystate Health as well as all patients, providers and health systems across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. At about 11:30 this morning, Gov. Deval Patrick gave his consent for the private and secure transmission of his personal health information from MGH to Baystate Health. On the receiving end awaiting the receipt of this EHR-to-EHR communication stood our CEO and President, Mark Tolosky, our Chief Quality Officer, Dr. Evan Benjamin, and our new leader of IS and Chief Information Officer, Joel Vengco.  (Me?  I would've loved to have worn the white coat, but I was rescued from the bright lights and TV cameras by attending a Premier conference in Phoenix.  Too bad I can't stand 95 degrees, humid or dry!)

The establishment of secure delivery of patient health information between disparate electronic health record systems holds the potential of providing the right information at the right time and to the right providers for each and every patient, regardless of where they receive their care.  Even more importantly, HIE will play a major role in meeting the Triple Aim, not only by delivering data expediently to improve the care and "experience" of the patient, but by facilitating the identification and care of high risk populations and by decreasing the duplication or incidence of inappropriate clinical services.  (I'll have more to say about what I believe should be the Quadruple Aim, that fourth target of improving the physician/provider experience of our profession.)

I will surely be posting more about HIE in the coming weeks and months since we will be venturing into something considerably more robust that the state's point-to-point delivery of information.  In the meantime, check out the following:


Officials launch statewide health info exchange - CBS 3 Springfield - WSHM