BATON ROUGE, LA – The Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum is on the fast track to develop the Louisiana Health Information Exchange (LaHIE), which will give providers access to health records and connect existing sources of patient data within the state. To accomplish this, the Quality Forum has selected Orion Health as its primary technology provider.

“This important decision has been reached due to the efforts of many dedicated Quality Forum stakeholders that include providers, payers, employers and consumers across the state. Their expertise in reviewing and assessing technology solutions from many vendors was invaluable. The states of Maine and Alaska, as well as multiple different regional and provider exchanges, rely on Orion Health to deliver their performance objectives. We are excited to soon offer health care providers in Louisiana a powerful, secure and comprehensive exchange solution,” commented Cindy Munn, the Quality Forum’s Executive Director.

According to Munn, the initial focus of the project will be to develop secure point-to-point messaging to help providers access critical health information and to achieve Meaningful Use quickly.

Additional benefits of LaHIE are designed to improve timely access to patient information, improve patient safety, increase security of records, increase consumer engagement, more adequately measure and improve public health benchmarks and reduce health care costs.

“LaHIE is another critical step in our ambitious agenda to improve health care services in our state and the health of our residents,” said DHH Secretary Bruce D. Greenstein. “While DHH has been working closely with health care providers to enhance the use of electronic health records, bringing this additional information technology into our health care marketplace will make the current technology use more meaningful and make our state more efficient. Louisianians deserve the highest level of patient safety and enhanced access to care when and where they need it. I am grateful for the hard work and dedication of our providers, stakeholders and leadership of the Quality Forum as we continue working in partnership on efforts that improve the health and lives of our state’s residents.”

Quality Forum President Karen DeSalvo, MD, reiterated that the selection of Orion Health’s technology platform for LaHIE is a crucial step forward for improving patient care in Louisiana. “The Forum is also in a unique position to assist physicians who want to join the network. Our experiences with creating LaHIE and managing the Louisiana Health Information Technology (LHIT) Resource Center have provided us with an informed perspective on what help health care workers need to get up to speed quickly with technology,” she added.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) approved the Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum’s strategic and operational plan for LaHIE earlier this year. The Quality Forum is a private, not-for-profit organization that serves as the State-Designated Entity to plan and implement LaHIE, to oversee the state’s regional extension center and to lead initiatives designed to improve health care quality for Louisiana residents.

For more information, please visit http://www.lhcqf.org.

About the Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum
The Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum is a private, not-for-profit organization, dedicated to advancing evidence-based, collaborative initiatives to improve the health of Louisiana citizens. Its main areas of focus include quality measurement, clinical quality improvement, the patient-centered medical home, outreach/education and health information technology. The Quality Forum serves as the State-Designed Entity to lead the planning and implementation of health information technology grants contained in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.