Major infrastructure is being developed in North Carolina that will enable physicians, hospitals, payers and others to securely share patient information that is currently accumulating in the electronic medical records of individual physician practices and hospitals. Many states, including North Carolina, are taking part in this federally funded initiative to develop health information exchanges (HIEs).
The NC Health Information Exchange (NCHIE) is seeking your comments on how best to develop statewide HIE services that can be deployed to the maximum benefit for all stakeholders. NC HIE is interested in your point of view on the services and functionality which should be included in the statewide HIE, as well as any thoughts regarding the content of the RFP (request for proposal) that will be developed to choose a vendor to build these services and functionality. Several NCMS members and the NCMS Foundation are actively involved with HIE development. Past President G. Hadley Callaway, MD, is a member of the NC HIE Board of Directors.
This is the opportunity to provide your input as to what type of information should be included in the exchange of data by the State’s HIE, to improve the health, safety, quality access and efficiency for all North Carolinians. Some questions you may want to consider are:
- What types of clinical functions would be helpful for the statewide HIE to support?
- What Core and Value-added HIE services are the most valuable to your organization and why?
- If you anticipate exchanging data with NC HIEs statewide services, how would you expect to request information?
- How would you present information you received from statewide HIE services to your users?
Responses are due by 5:00 pm on Friday, March 25. Click here to offer your thoughts.
at 8:50 pm
I’m a PCP at Charles Drew CHC in Burlington. Aside from being able to look up recent lab values, study results and consultant notes…the thing I think would be most valuable is a secure way to communicate about patients between PCPs and consultants. It would be great to be able to ask the nephrologist their advice about the best medication to start next for a pt’s hypertension without having to page them or go through the nurse. I’m sure some physicians would be nervous that this would open them up to an overwhelming amount of email, but I actually think it would reduce the workload overall if properly designed.
Thanks,
Harriett Burns, MD