Author: Jessica Hagins
NC HealthConnex Upgrade Completed
The N.C. Health Information Exchange Authority and its partner SAS Institute are pleased to announce a major upgrade to the NC HealthConnex platform has been completed. The upgrade took place over the weekend of August 10 to August 11, 2024, during which participants experienced planned downtime and delays. The NC HIEA would like to thank our participants for their patience during this downtime.
Data submission and access to NC HealthConnex Exchange Services, such as the Clinical Portal, bidirectional exchange and Direct Secure Message resumed on the evening Sunday, August 11.
Initially, there was a temporary outage to NC*Notify services following the upgrade. Access to the NC*Notify dashboard was restored on Monday, August 12.
The following are some helpful steps to take to ensure you can continue to use NC HealthConnex smoothly:
- To avoid access issues, please update your bookmarked URL to https://portal.nchealthconnex.net.
- View this Clinical Portal Quick Reference Guide to get started using the upgraded NC HealthConnex Clinical Portal.
- View the complete updated Clinical Portal User Guide for a more thorough look at how to use all the features of NC HealthConnex.
- Watch this video to see a demonstration of the upgrade Clinical Portal.
- Take this survey to share with us your experience following the upgrade.
If you continue to experience downtime or delays in accessing our services, please call the Help Desk at 919-531-2700 or email us at HIESupport@sas.com.
Please note: This upgrade process and any subsequent downtime did not impact your compliance with the HIE Act.
The goal of this upgrade was to modernize the NC HealthConnex infrastructure to current health information exchange standards, which will result in improved system performance and a better user experience for our participants.
More information about this upgrade is available on this FAQ page. If you have more questions, please contact the NC HealthConnex Provider Relations team at (919) 754-6912.
Thank you for your assistance in making this a smooth transition, and for your help in making NC HealthConnex successful.
Benefits of Using NC HealthConnex to Connect to the N.C. Immunization Registry
August is National Immunization Awareness Month, a time to highlight the importance of routine vaccinations, especially as children head back to school. Preventing the spread of respiratory illnesses is also important as we are seeing a rise in COVID-19 cases, according to the latest CDC data. The CDC released guidance for preventing the spread of infectious diseases, including promoting vaccinations for students, teachers and staff.
The North Carolina Immunization Registry (NCIR) facilitates reporting of statewide immunization data for public health officials and helps providers manage vaccine administration to patients. NC HealthConnex, the state-designated health information exchange, supports the data in the NCIR and improves workflow for public health officials and providers.
When providers are connected to the NCIR through NC HealthConnex, the vaccine information is sent automatically to the registry via existing integrations with their electronic medical record system (EMR). This saves providers time by eliminating double data entry into their EMR and separately into the NCIR.
Connecting to the NCIR through NC HealthConnex can also save costs for providers because they do not have to pay to make a technical connection to both systems. While the N.C. Health Information Exchange Authority (NC HIEA), which operates NC HealthConnex, offers its services free of charge, some EHR vendors do charge to make this technical connection.
You can see more information on how to connect to the NCIR through NC HealthConnex by visiting our website.
Informing the NC HIEA of Material Organization/System Changes
This is a reminder to update the NC HIEA as soon as possible with certain changes that can impact how your data is sent to NC HealthConnex. A 30- to 60-day advance notice is ideal whenever possible.
Please contact the SAS Help Desk at HIESupport@sas.com or 919-531-2700 for any of the following situations:
- Data/security breaches
- Network changes
- Server migrations/changes
- Changes, upgrades or updates to your EHR, including code/code system changes for coded data elements or significant changes to how your data will be sent to NC HealthConnex
- Transitioning to a new EHR vendor
- Transitioning to an EHR instance shared with another organization, such as Epic Community Connect
- Changes to systems such as the Assigning Authority or Number Creation System. If you need more information on what this system is and how it works, please view this infographic.
Please contact the NC HIEA team at hiea@nc.gov with any of the following changes:
- Key personnel transitions (such as your Participant Account Administrator leaving and a new PAA being added)
- Personnel contact information changes
- Facility contact information changes
- Facility location changes
Remember that good, quality data begins with the data entry process during patient intake. View this infographic for tips and information on best data entry practices.
Employee Spotlight
Jonas Dusenberry
Application Systems Specialist/Immunization Registry
Jonas has worked with the NC HIEA since 2019 providing support for various workstreams while focusing on data quality and the North Carolina Immunization Registry. With 10 years of data quality and interoperability experience, he enjoys utilizing his abilities to help further the goal of the NC HIEA.
Jonas is a Pennsylvania native, but North Carolinian at heart. Moving to the great state of North Carolina in 2014, Jonas and his family were quick to appreciate the state’s culture and climate.