CommunityHealth IT joins Florida’s Health Information Exchange

May 19, 2016

jill.dygert

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AHCA Communications Office

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Today, the Agency for Health Care Administration (Agency) announced that CommunityHealth IT will join the Florida Health Information Exchange (Florida HIE). CommunityHealth IT is the most recent addition to the Florida HIE program’s Patient Look-Up (PLU) service.

Secretary Elizabeth Dudek said, “The Agency congratulates CommunityHealth IT and all the providers in the network on their commitment to improve patient health care through the use of technology. Joining the Patient Look-Up service acknowledges the significant role safe and effective exchange of data plays in improving quality of care. This will improve care coordination by allowing more rural health care providers to plug into the networks.”

The PLU service enables health care organizations and providers to query medical records, with appropriate patient consent, through a secure connection. By merging smaller, regional networks or “nodes” into a larger, statewide network, the PLU service combines the security of local control with the utility of a statewide exchange. Each participating node maintains its own records, but the information can be requested by other PLU participants at any time for the purpose of patient care. This allows health care providers the ability to obtain patient information when needed to maintain continuity of care and improve coordination.

CommunityHealth IT, operating as MyHealthStory, focuses on connections with rural health care providers, community mental health providers and individual physician offices. They are one of three nodes connected to the PLU service that are working to connect unaffiliated health care providers to the statewide exchange.

Kendra Siler-Marsiglio, President of CommunityHealth IT, said, “We are excited about the opportunity to provide health care organizations of all sizes and resources with options for connecting to the Florida HIE. Each additional provider connection enhances the effectiveness and value of this beneficial service.”

Currently, there are more than 400 facilities participating in the PLU service with others expected to come online later in the year. These additions to the service will be added through direct connection to the PLU service or through organizations like CommunityHealth IT.

Health care organizations currently participating in the service include: Bethesda Health, Broward Health, CommunityHealth IT, Florida Hospital/Adventist, Memorial Health System, Orlando Health, Senior Home Care – an affiliate of Kindred at Home, Strategic Health Intelligence, Tampa Bay HIE and UF Health.

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