Integration of Health Information Exchange in Workflow Enables Tech-Driven Primary Care
Adoption of health information exchange (HIE) into the daily workflows of medical providers offers unique opportunities and capabilities to realize the potential of value-based care at the level of patient care by primary care physicians.
Dr. Justin Glodowski, a family medicine doctor and medical director at Generations Family Practices’ (GFP) in Cary who recently was voted the best doctor in Cary Magazine’s 2022 annual Maggy Awards, has quickly adopted NC HealthConnex, North Carolina’s state-designated HIE, as a tool to enable tech-enabled primary care.
Glodowski led GFP as the first facility within Cary Medical Management (CMM) to deploy use of NC HealthConnex. This exchange helps break down the information silos between fragmented health care technology, particularly electronic health records.
For example, with patient-encounter alerts through the HIE, primary care providers are better informed to assist patients after they have been discharged from hospitals, which reduces readmissions.
Glodowski’s Cary clinic is also exploring ways to extract critical diagnosis and treatment data from other specialists with the data flowing through NC HealthConnex. The aim is to give CMM providers a comprehensive, holistic picture of patients’ medical diagnoses and conditions, treatments and medications. With such a full view on patients, primary care providers can more accurately assess patients’ care needs, risk, medications and treatment, promoting high-quality care and cost savings.
Innovative use of HIEs, incorporated into the daily workflow of medical providers, can yield both patient outcomes and experiences while promoting high-quality care and cost savings.
NC HealthConnex Gives Skin Cancer Care Center Broader View of Patient Care
Cary Skin Center, an outpatient surgical center specializing in Mohs micrographic surgery for the removal of skin cancer, recently joined North Carolina's state-designated health information exchange (HIE), NC HealthConnex, to participate in the statewide exchange of important patient information with other providers caring for the same patients.
Dr. Robert Clark, president of Cary Skin Center, said he is "very enthusiastic" about the partnership with the N.C. Health Information Exchange Authority, which manages NC HealthConnex.
"Having access to the NC HealthConnex network will help our clinicians get the information they need to make more informed decisions about our patients’ care when they need it," Clark said.
Cary Skin Center looks to benefit from connecting to NC HealthConnex's growing network of hospitals, health departments and medical practices. Linking to other providers seen by its patients will give Cary Skin Center insights into its patients' drug allergies, prescriptions, medical conditions, and lab and test results, creating more complete health records for its individual patients.
Cary Skin Center's connection to the state HIE demonstrates its commitment to creating and sustaining a culture of excellence to improve care coordination and provide better patient outcomes. Cary Skin Center is the first surgical center to achieve recognition as a center of excellence in Mohs micrographic surgery from Surgical Review Corporation, a nonprofit, patient safety organization that accredits the top surgical facilities and medical professionals.
Virtual Meetings, QR Codes: Cyber Vulnerabilities Prompt Need for Vigilance in Health Care
Large-scale geo-political events and nation-state cyber warfare mean that health care providers need to exercise caution in even the smallest daily tasks – responding to email and joining virtual meetings.
Health care facilities and providers remain a critical infrastructure frequently targeted by cyber criminals, particularly for the rich amounts of personal data they protect in electronic health records. Even as cyberthreats become increasingly sophisticated, the individual employee still stands out as a common point of attack.
Health care organizations should make sure that employees understand their critical responsibilities in the cyber defense of their patients and organization.
The April edition of NCDIT’s Enterprise Security and Risk Management Office's April Cybersecurity newsletter shares issues in cyber security beneficial to health care organizations:
- A federal briefing on recent cyber threats
- Vulnerabilities of virtual meeting platforms
- Scams using QR codes
- Free cybersecurity services and tools
Find more cybersecurity and risk management resources from the N.C. Department of Information Technology.
Upcoming Events
- NC Legislative Short Session Convenes
Wednesday, May 18, 2022 - NC HIEA to Present at NC HIMSS
Tuesday, May 24, 2022, 1:45 pm - 2:30 pm
Breaking Silos: How a North Carolina HIE Expanded Data Sharing Across Agencies for COVID Response - NC HIEA Advisory Board Meeting
Thursday, June 16, 2022, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Find out how to join the second quarterly meeting of the NC HIEA Advisory Board. - NC Legislative Session Adjourns
Thursday, June 30, 2022
In the News
Today’s Young Adults Demand a Highly Personal Health Care Experience — People who have grown up in the internet age have different expectations than previous generations for value-based, personalized and data-driven health care. medicaleconomics.com
Employee Email Warnings Reduce EHR Snooping, Unauthorized PHI Access — Employees who received an email warning after unauthorized access to protected health information were far less likely to do so again, research published in JAMA found. healthitsecurity.com
March of Dimes, Deloitte Partner on Maternal Health Equity Data — A new dashboard with maternal health equity data, including care deserts and social determinants of health information, is catered to inform dimensional interventions.
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