Central Illinois Health Information Exchange (CIHIE) has operational “go-live”

Central Illinois Health Information Exchange (CIHIE) and ICA, a leading provider of interoperability technology that enables care coordination and health information exchange (HIE), announced today that CIHIE is the first regional health information exchange (HIE) in Illinois to “go-live” with secure, automated data exchange of patient records. CIHIE serves approximately 1.3 million people in 20 counties in the Peoria, Bloomington, Champaign, and Decatur areas of Illinois.

“Our go-live began with four CIHIE hospital members that successfully pooled data within the exchange: Methodist Medical Center of Illinois, Peoria; Decatur Memorial Hospital, Decatur; St. Mary’s Hospital, Decatur; and St. Mary’s Hospital, Streator. It is exciting to have accomplished this first step with no errors or issues reported,” said Dr. Gail Amundson, chair of the CIHIE Board of Directors.

“Methodist Medical Center of Illinois has been a long-time supporter of the HIE planning effort. We believe that this technology will have community-wide benefit for both clinicians and patients, so when we had the opportunity to be the first to connect to the exchange, we were eager to do so,” said Tina Miller, Director of Information Services for Methodist Medical Center of Illinois. “After months of technical planning and testing, we were all very pleased at how smoothly the go-live went.”

“The people from each hospital who worked diligently for months to make this possible believe in the value and benefit of health information exchange for their community and our region. The technology is expected to improve patient care by making information available to clinicians who care for patients. We commend each implementation team for their hard work and thank ICA for their technical guidance with system compatibility issues. The two years of planning in our 20-county region that involved many volunteers, work groups, and a visionary executive council, plus ICA’s broad experience, helped us carry out a focused implementation process,” added Joy Duling, Executive Director of CIHIE.

Over the next 60-90 days, clinicians at participating organizations will be trained regarding use of the exchange to locate patient records.

The CIHIE service area currently includes 27 hospitals, 20 health departments, 2,800 physicians, 280 pharmacies, 12 labs and imaging centers and numerous ancillary healthcare providers such as rehabilitation centers, behavioral healthcare, long-term care facilities and nursing homes. Member organizations include: Advocate BroMenn Medical Center, Normal; Community Health Improvement Center, Decatur; Decatur Memorial Hospital; Dr. John Warner Hospital, Clinton; Easter Seals – Peoria, Bloomington-Normal & Decatur; Heartland Community Health Clinic, Peoria; Human Service Center, Peoria; Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Peoria; Macon County Health Department, Decatur; Methodist Medical Center of Illinois, Peoria; OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, Peoria; Proctor Hospital, Peoria; St. Mary’s Hospital, Decatur; St. Mary’s Hospital, Streator; and the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria.

About Central Illinois Health Information Exchange (CIHIE)

The Central Illinois Health Information Exchange is an independent nonprofit organization that governs implementation of the regional HIE across 20 counties in central Illinois. Members can access the exchange through the allcharts™ software. This local network will ultimately be able to connect with other regional and national exchanges, supporting extensive information portability for patients. For information: allchartsnow.com or cihie.org. Follow CIHIE on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google +, or Twitter.

About ICA

ICA was established to take innovative technology developed by Vanderbilt Medical Center to the broader healthcare market, and now delivers a comprehensive health information exchange (HIE) and care management solution to hospitals, IDNs, communities and states. This patient-centered modular approach offers immediate value and return-on-investment through the delivery of clinical information to the point-of-care improving quality while reducing costs. The CareAlign® solution suite, or volume set, includes CareAlign, CareExchange, CareConnect, CareCollaborate, CareMeasure and CareManage. Each volume provides the technology necessary to progressively exchange clinical information, increase care collaboration and manage healthcare risk across the continuum of care with the goal of improving patient outcomes while reducing costs. Visit www.icainformatics.com, follow us on Twitter, ICA HITme Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.