letter to the community
Over the course of 13 years, HealtheConnections has created a comprehensive network of participants and patient data that is being used to improve healthcare delivery and health outcomes in our communities.
Dear Participants, Partners, and Stakeholders,
HealtheConnections has been steadfast in its mission to collaborate with you to develop and deliver valued services, enabling improvements for healthier people, better care, and cost efficiencies. We set ambitious objectives and targets each year because improving health and care in our communities is a job that is never truly done.
As we reflect on the past year, I'm proud to see how we rose to new challenges and accomplished what we set out to do. We expanded our services and grew our team with further expertise in clinical informatics, data solutions, data quality, and application development. We supported our health information exchange users and data contributors as they continued to access and share millions of health records. We established new partnerships, demonstrating how health information exchange services and data offer unique value to public health and research. And, we continued to meet strict quality standards and earn operational certifications, ensuring the ongoing credibility of our data, our security, and our services.
Forging strong partnerships with participants, partners, and stakeholders like you has always been a priority, and we recognize it as an essential part of our success. It is this commitment to building trusted relationships and delivering services that are valued by all of you that shaped 2022 into a year of realized goals.
2022 Key Accomplishments
Data Quality, Access & Contribution Standards
- Accredited by NCQA for the third year in a row as a validated data aggregator in support of high-quality data and use of data in HEDIS®
- Improved operational processes and expanded in-house expertise for data integration, data quality, validation services, and more
- Expanded health information exchange services and continued data source integrations, including 30 new organizations contributing data across 99 locations
- Significant growth in delivering results and alerts to participating providers
- 116% increase in alerts delivered
- 53% growth in results delivered
Maintaining High Operational Standards
- Re-certified once again as an accredited member of the Statewide Health Information Network of New York (SHIN-NY)
- Achieved HITRUST security certification for the 4th consecutive year
- Delivered high levels of customer satisfaction as measured through a SHIN-NY-wide survey, administered on behalf of the New York State Department of Health
- Maintained strong financial performance and received a clean opinion on all audits
Collaborative Partnerships
- Continued strategic partnership with Lantana Consulting Group, developing public health use cases for HIE data for the CDC's National Healthcare Safety Network
- Launched a Statewide Sensitive Data Segmentation Project in collaboration with other RHIOs
- Invited to join the New York eHealth Collaborative Public Health Workgroup to support state and local health departments throughout New York State
- Ongoing efforts involving social determinants of health (SDoH) data alongside other RHIOs and partners, including refining standards for handling these data in order to drive a more holistic view of health needs in our communities
Population & Public Health
- Collaborated with Westchester County to build a new opioid overdose report to help track overdoses and identify hotspots
- Assisted the NYSDOH in the identification of Pediatric Hepatitis cases, showcasing the value of community-wide HIE data for public health surveillance
- Participated in regional and New York state dialogue surrounding the Proposed 1115 Waiver Amendment to support critical regional and state goals
2022 By the Numbers
participating organizations
licensed
physicians participating
locations connected
organizations contributing data
patients with records in the exchange
patients’ records received per month
unique patients accessed per month
patient consents
clinical alerts
per month
clinical summary documents received per month
image studies received per month
results delivered per month
2023 Focus Areas
Optimizing customer service processes and systems to drive efficiencies for our participating organizations, HIE users, and internal team members.
Leveraging HIE data for practical healthcare applications, public health initiatives, and to help our partners solve unique data challenges that will improve their operations and patient outcomes.
Continued efforts to support public health surveillance, with a concentration on Social Determinants of Health data.
Collaborating with stakeholders and partners supporting the 1115 Medicaid Waiver and other NYS health IT and public health priorities.
Sustaining our data as the central tool to share and support our network and organizations more easily.
Continuous improvements to our HIE systems and infrastructure to support high performance, strong operations, and timely monitoring.
HealtheConnections' experience with and access to health data can be applied to inform, support, and promote initiatives that allow medical providers and public health professionals to make meaningful change. Forging ahead, we will deliver new ways to access, share, and understand patient data that helps improve patient outcomes and health in our communities.
Our dedication to maintaining a strong HIE network continues. A healthy, expansive network not only helps our clinical customers solve their data challenges, but presents new opportunities to work alongside our partners in public health. We are actively engaged in ongoing conversations with regional and state partners to utilize HIE technology and data for emerging public health strategies, particularly in support of New York State's 1115 Medicaid Waiver.
Customer service and HIE system performance enhancements are a primary focus moving into 2023. We've made a commitment to our customers and to ourselves with plans already in motion to streamline processes and accelerate system enhancement projects that will drive efficiencies for improved customer service and faster system performance. As our network continues to grow, optimizing our HIE applications to work alongside the rapid pace of our participating organizations is crucial.
What we've accomplished together so far as a collaborative network and trusted partner is only scratching the surface of where we want to go and what we can achieve. On behalf of the entire HealtheConnections team, we thank all of you for your ongoing support and partnership as we continue to pursue this mission together.
With appreciation,
Rob Hack, President & CEO
