Relationships, Relationships, Relationships: How HealtheConnections Delivers Value Through Partnerships
Throughout the past decade of delivering HIE services, HealtheConnections’ customer engagement strategy has relied on one simple concept: Building relationships.
The holy grail of healthcare delivery – the Quadruple Aim – focuses on better outcomes and care, improved patient experience, and improved clinical experience with lower costs, which is enabled through the right information, at the right time. Using health information exchange (HIE) services, more healthcare and community-based organizations than ever before have immediate point of care access to patient health information regionally and statewide.
“Our core tenet is to engage our participants in a partnership to create a plan, together, to deliver efficiencies through valued services and curated patient information from our connected network of care providers”, said Rob Hack, president and CEO of HealtheConnections. “Our customer and technical engagement teams build relationships which foster trust and collaboration to deliver benefits to the patients and populations served by our participants.”
Basil Njoku, chief operating officer of Comprehensive Primary Care Services in New Rochelle, NY, echoes those sentiments. He stresses the differences he’s seen in his organization since joining with HealtheConnections.
“The pursuit of an interoperable healthcare system within and beyond our medical neighborhood has been enhanced by our integration with HealtheConnections. They ensure seamless dovetail of divergent clinical platforms for a more efficient operation,” Njoku said. “With clinical alerts, our practice is able to monitor patient discharges and follow-up appointments. Our ability to access patient information regardless of point of care makes for accuracy and comprehensive outlay in clinical documentation and care coordination. As a PCMH facility, HealtheConnections has remained an invaluable partner and should be leveraged to ensure a full realization of an integrated healthcare system.”
Just as with Njoku’s organization, HealtheConnections develops individualized roadmaps for healthcare and community-based organizations to use the HIE to its greatest advantage. This approach has led to strong increases in data contribution, participation, usage, and customer satisfaction, with particularly significant growth in the Hudson Valley region.
On the heels of opening a new customer engagement office in Westchester County in 2019, HealtheConnections committed to expanding information and services in the Hudson Valley. Since then, more than 150 new organizations in this region have joined HealtheConnections to share and access patient information. In total, the company serves 1,500 participating organizations across 3,700 locations, supporting 11,000 licensed clinicians.
New or expanded partnerships that spurred on this growth include respected regional care groups Caremount Medical, WestMED, Crystal Run Healthcare, ENT and Allergy Associates, and Nuvance Health.
“These organizations alone share more than half a million patient encounters per month, which are so important to all regional care providers.” Hack said.
Collectively, the HIE is receiving data on 8.5 million patients from more than 500 data sources, including major hospital and health systems throughout the 26-county service area. Incoming clinical summary documents (CCDs) are up to more than 3 million per month, an increase of 42% year-over-year. Not only is this essential for medical staff, but also public health professionals, in particular in a pandemic environment.
“The information provided by HealtheConnections, especially now in the COVID-19 pandemic, has enhanced our workflow and processes,” said Ginger Hall of the Jefferson County Public Health Service. “We now have information at our “fingertips” that allows us to complete follow-ups and very comprehensive case investigations. Nurses have repeatedly mentioned they do not know how they completed their responsibilities before. We cannot function without it. It is integrated into our everyday activities.”
HealtheConnections is accredited by the New York State Department of Health as a member of the Statewide Health Information Network of New York (SHIN-NY), and as such leverages its network of connected patient information for improved patient care, population health management and public health services.
See all participating organizations: Participant Map
See all data contribution: Data Contributors
