The Central Illinois Health Information Exchange (CIHIE) today introduced allcharts ™ patient data exchange software and secure clinical messaging to the community. CIHIE is an independent non-profit organization that governs implementation of the regional health information exchange.
The CIHIE service area currently covers 20 counties in central Illinois with a population of approximately 1.3 million people. The region 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.
Gail Amundson, MD, CIHIE Board Chair, said, “allcharts™ is a secure technology tool that will assist healthcare providers to improve their quality of care and relieve patients of the need to carry their health record around in their head or on sheets of paper. In a world where we have online banking and financial transactions travel across the globe in seconds, the time has come to modernize healthcare communications in central Illinois.”
Joy Duling, Interim Executive Director of CIHIE, said, “allcharts™ is important because it creates a community patient record, which provides a comprehensive view of inpatient and outpatient information, lab results, radiology tests, medications and much more.”
allcharts™ is able to extract patient information from disparate systems and present this information into a single view. The portal does not replace electronic medical record systems, but enables them to integrate with one another. allcharts™ also provides the ability for clinicians to send secure messages to each other to aid in care coordination. Such communication could include referral letters, consultation notes, important images and more. Secure messaging eliminates the need to fax, mail or hand-deliver such important patient care documentation.
“There are clear benefits to having a community-wide patient record,” said David Trachtenbarg, MD, CIHIE Chief Medical Informatics Officer. “For providers, it means delivering higher quality patient care by having unprecedented access to clinical data, reducing duplicative tests, and improving care coordination. This will enable physicians to spend more time with their patients, thereby increasing patient satisfaction.”
“allcharts™ will strengthen care coordination among CIHIE participating hospitals, clinics and other health facilities and establish a more collaborative approach to care delivery. By improving treatment decisions, avoiding redundant diagnostics and eliminating adverse drug reactions, allcharts™ will contribute to cost reductions while patient care outcomes improve,” Amundson added.
About the Central Illinois Health Information Exchange The Central Illinois Health Information Exchange is an independent nonprofit organization that governs implementation of the regional HIE and was incubated under the auspices of Quality Quest for Health of Illinois. Member organizations include: Advocate Bromenn Medical Center, Normal; Community Health Improvement Center, Decatur; Decatur Memorial Hospital; Easter Seals – Peoria & Bloomington-Normal & Decatur; Heartland Community Health Clinic, Peoria; Human Service Center, Peoria; Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Peoria; 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.
Learn more at www.allchartsnow.com and www.cihie.org.