TOPEKA, Kan. & NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Kansas Health Information Network (KHIN) and ICA, a leading provider of interoperability technology that enables care coordination and health information exchange (HIE), announced today they have successfully transmitted immunizations through the ICA CareAlign® health information exchange platform from the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas, a federally qualified health center, to the Kansas Immunization Registry, KSWebIZ.
KSWebIZ is a web-based statewide immunization registry established to consolidate immunization information for all Kansas residents, assure adequate immunization levels and avoid unnecessary immunizations. The project is being implemented in two phases. The first phase is a uni-directional interface that electronically sends immunizations from the healthcare facility to KSWebIZ. The second phase will allow healthcare providers to search the registry and retrieve immunization information for their patients.
“The goal of this project is to improve the accuracy of the immunization information in KSWebIZ. This will ensure that Kansas healthcare providers have rapid and complete information regarding their patients’ immunization statuses. The primary objectives are to eliminate missed opportunities to immunize and reduce unnecessary duplicate immunizations,” said Laura McCrary Ed.D, Executive Director of KHIN. “An additional benefit is the reduction in administrative time that has been required to manually enter immunizations into KSWebIZ. Now immunization data from the clinic is electronically sent to WebIZ, improving the accuracy and timeliness of the data while saving hundreds of hours of manual data entry.”
“Federally qualified health centers provide care to the most medically vulnerable patients in our communities. We provide over 15,000 immunizations annually in our six locations,” said Krista Postai, Chief Executive Officer of the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas. “This required many hours of data entry into KSWebIZ. Immunization information is electronically sent to KSWebIZ through KHIN, ensuring the information on our patients is accurate and up to date in the state registry.”
“The goal of an electronic registry is to serve as a repository for immunization records that are accurate, up-to-date and complete,” said Michael McPherson, Interface Coordinator for KSWebIZ. “This project will leverage current resources already in place, ensuring access to the data from authorized users, and will positively impact the physician, care provider and patient experience while continually improving quality and safety of care.”
“KHIN continues to break barriers and show the way for other HIEs nationally,” said Gary Zegiestowsky, Chief Executive Officer at ICA. “This pilot is a critical first step in a broader statewide immunization data exchange that will add an important layer of information available to clinicians that is vital to improving overall health for the state of Kansas and helping to prevent immunizable epidemics, such as the current influenza outbreak. As KHIN’s utilization of the CareAlign platform continues to expand, the strength and flexibility of the solution becomes more apparent to all.”
About The Kansas Health Information Network, Inc.
KHIN’s mission is to improve healthcare quality, coordination and efficiency through the exchange of health information at the point of care utilizing a secure electronic network provided by a collaboration of healthcare organizations. KHIN is a provider led, not for profit. It draws users from a broad geographical area (85,000 square miles) and aligns with state data sources to support cost effective delivery of services. It supports and integrates with community and medical trading area efforts to drive care coordination and workflow changes creating a climate to encourage innovation. Its goals are to ensure providers, patients and communities have long-term access to cost effective, sustainable health information exchange aligned with costs distributed across a broad user base. KHIN supports providers in meeting Meaningful Use requirements and removes barriers so communities and regions can focus on quality improvement, patient centered medical homes and entrepreneurial strategies that improve local health outcomes.
About ICA
Originating from clinical informatics solutions developed within Vanderbilt Medical Center, ICA’s state-of-the-art CareAlign® interoperability and informatics platform addresses and solves data and communication challenges for many healthcare entities, including hospitals, IPAs, IDNs, HIEs, payers and others. CareAlign delivers a flexible architecture to connect, collect, consume and intelligently distribute data through Direct, IHE, HL7, and custom methods for use in EHRs, third party applications, and ICA’s applications. CareAlign unites a wide range of information supporting analytics associated with population health management, transitions of care communication, re-admissions reduction, meaningful use requirements and PCMH/ACO operations. Visit www.icainformatics.com, and follow us on Twitter, ICA HITme Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.
