Growth Prompts Two New Hires at HealthInfoNet
8/16/10
Kimberly Bustamante has joined HealthInfoNet as Manager of Administration and Finance. Kimberly was most recently with the Maine Center for Public Health in Augusta where she served as Director of Finance and Administration responsible for all administrative operations including finance, information technology and human resources. Her prior professional experience ranged from managing a satellite office for a manufacturing company to working with employee benefits in the insurance industry. Kim earned Bachelors degrees in Accounting and Business Administration from Husson University. Kim resides in Poland with her husband, Juan, and their two children.
Wendy Flynn has joined HealthInfoNet as Project Manager. Wendy was most recently TRS Implementation Manager and Senior Product Consultant for Enwisen, a Human Resources software company based in California. In this role she was responsible for ensuring the successful implementation of the Enwisen Online Total Rewards Statement solution for a variety of customers. Wendy has over ten years of experience in software development and implementation of systems in retail, pharmaceutical, health care and insurance industries. Wendy holds a B.A. in Mathematics from Keene State College, as well as a Graduate Studies Certificate in Biostatistics from the University of Southern Maine. Wendy resides in Portland.
Three New Employees Join HealthInfoNet
7/20/10
Shaun Alfreds (at right) has joined HealthInfoNet as Chief Operating Officer. He previously served as HIT Program Director at the National Academy for State Health Policy, where he engaged in research and policy development in the areas of health information technology and health information exchange. Shaun holds a faculty appointment in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He received an MBA from the University of Maine and is a Certified Professional in Health Information Technology. Shaun lives in North Yarmouth with his wife Heidi and their three children.
Todd Rogow (at left) has joined HealthInfoNet as Director of Project Management and the Regional Extension Center. Todd has held a number of key management positions in information technology, most recently at IDEXX Laboratories. In the Washington, DC area, he served as Manager of IT Planning and Implementation at MCI Worldcom and Deputy Program Manager at Northrop Grumman Corporation Health Solutions. Todd currently serves on the Board of the Project Management Institute's Maine Chapter and holds credentials as both a Project Management Professional and as a Certified ScrumMaster. He has a Master's degree in Public Administration from the University of Vermont. Todd lives in Falmouth with his wife Militsa Plavsic and their two children.
Amy Landry has joined HealthInfoNet as Communications Manager. Amy comes to HealthInfoNet from Martin's Point Health Care where she was engaged in internal and external communications, government affairs, policy analysis, and media relations. Prior to that she led the Marketing and Communications Department at Parkview Adventist Medical Center. In the community she serves on the Board of Directors for the Oasis Health Network, which offers free care to residents of several southern Midcoast Maine communities. She holds a bachelor's degree in Media Studies and a Master's in Health Policy and Management from the Muskie School of Public Service, both from the University of Southern Maine. Amy lives in Portland with her husband Tom.
HealthInfoNet Positioned to Help Providers Achieve Meaningful Use
7/20/10
In light of new federal rules, several of the services HealthInfoNet offers will help make many Maine health care providers and hospitals adopting and using electronic medical records (EMR), eligible to receive federal incentive payments from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
On July 13th, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced two long awaited "final rules" that define stage one meaningful use and certification of EMR technology outlined in the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009. Under the Act, health care providers and hospitals can qualify for Medicare and/or Medicaid incentive payments if they meet stage one meaningful use criteria.
The stage one meaningful use criteria include fifteen "core" measures that must be demonstrated by both hospitals and physician practices. Hospitals and physician practices must also demonstrate compliance with five "other" criteria chosen by each provider organization from a "menu" of ten additional criteria. To trigger stage one meaningful use incentive payments, most providers and hospitals must demonstrate compliance with these criteria by April of 2012. The one notable exception will be physician practices that qualify for incentive payments under Medicaid. These practices can secure meaningful use incentive payments prior to installing a certified EMR so that funds may be applied to the cost of investing in an EMR solution.
Because HealthInfoNet (HIN) is operational today, Maine health care providers connected to the HIN exchange already satisfy three of the core meaningful use criteria and two of the optional criteria. By 2011 Maine providers, through their participation in HIN, will be able to meet four additional core criteria (seven in total) and two of the optional criteria listed in the final rule.
Click here to view a spreadsheet outlining the stage one meaningful use criteria HealthInfoNet is positioned to help providers achieve as well as a timeline for their implementation.
Half Of Maine's Entire Population Now Included In Secure Statewide Exchange
Maine will soon receive $6.6 million from the federal government to "rapidly build capacity for exchanging health information across the health care systems both within and between states."
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| Maine Medical Center Emergency Department Director Dr. Mike Gibbs demonstrated HealthInfoNet to U. S. Representative Chellie Pingree, who joined Maine's entire Congressional Delegation to support health IT funding in the 2009 federal recovery act. |
More than $4.5 million will go to HealthInfoNet (HIN), Maine's independent, nonprofit statewide health information exchange. The funds, made available through last year's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will be used to help transition HealthInfoNet later this year from a two-year Demonstration Phase toward statewide implementation.
HealtInfoNet expects to add up to seven more hospitals to the statewide health information exchange over the next year, bringing the total number of participating hospitals to 22. By 2015, HIN plans to include all of the state's hospitals and approximately 80 percent of Maine's physician practices.
"This funding is critical as hospitals and primary care providers continue to upgrade and improve their data and medical record management systems, and also will help facilitate information sharing between health care providers," said U.S. Senator Susan Collins.
HealthInfoNet's secure clinical database now contains approximately half of Maine's entire 1.3 million population. This means that clinicians participating in HealthInfoNet's two-year demonstration phase now have 24/7 access---for the first time---to critically important patient-specific data on a statewide basis. Hundreds of physicians are now registered with HealthInfoNet. Each day, more medical care teams are accessing data to help make better-informed decisions. This has proven particularly useful in the care of more than 85,000 patients who sought care in recent months at two or more provider sites that previously did not electronically share patient data.
Over time, the database will grow to include clinical information for most Maine residents (except those who choose to "opt out.") To date, about 4,000 individuals have decided not to participate in HIN.
Just over $2 million from the recently-announced federal grant will support the establishment of a new state office to coordinate health information technology among state agencies and oversee a statewide health IT strategy in partnership with HealthInfoNet. Click here to learn more about HealthInfoNet's demonstration phase.
View HealthInfoNet's exciting new video, highlighting the benefits that real clinician users are receiving from the system.
Q&A: Maine HIE works through a variety of challenges
The state of Maine currently has the largest operating statewide exchange in the country in relation to population. Although Devore Culver, Executive Director of Maine’s HealthInfoNet, expects that distinction to change in the months ahead, the state’s HIE is entering the final months of its demonstration phase, and is slated to move into its full statewide implementation in the second half of 2010. Culver, who is former CIO of Eastern Maine Health Care, recently spoke with CMIO about the progress HealthInfoNet has made.
Full Article Avaiable at CMIO"Meaningful Use" Status Positions Maine Providers For Higher Payments
Now that Maine has become the nation's third operational health information exchange, providers will be well positioned to secure substantial new federal payments and other funding. HealthInfoNet will enable Maine providers to meet new "meaningful user" criteria that will be used by CMS to increase payments and other reimbursement. This winter Maine is expected to receive nearly $7 million through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). This funding will help HealthInfoNet transition from its current 24-month demonstration phase to statewide implementation. Over time HealthInfoNet will be extended to include small and rural, unaffiliated providers, long term care, home health, behavioral health and others. As Maine's Regional Extension Center or REC, HealthInfoNet also will make it possible for providers to secure federal funding to offset some of the costs associated with EMR implementation. The REC will provide technical assistance to providers in the selection and installation of EMRs.
New Health IT Office Established
In recent month's the Governor's office has engaged a wide range of stakeholders to develop a comprehensive health IT strategy for Maine. It's also established a new office of the Coordinator of Health IT that will be charged with implementing this strategy and aligning various state agencies that have a role in health and health care. The federal government has required all states to take these actions as part of its overall strategy to accelerate the adoption of EMR and integrated systems such as HealthInfoNet. In November HealthInfoNet's board of directors approved a resolution supporting the state's emerging leadership in Health IT. The resolutionalso reaffirms HealthInfoNet's commitment to operate Maine's health information exchange as an independent, nonprofit organization.
An Early Benefit: Improved Care Coordination
Clinicians who are early-users of HealthInfoNet report substantial time savings as they and their staffs prepare for patient visits. The traditionally-cumbersome and incomplete process of assembling information via fax, phone and mail has been streamlined by HealthInfoNet's 24/7 electronic exchange. Here's how one Maine physician described a recent patient encounter: "I recently saw a new patient in Bangor who had been discharged the day before from CMMC. My staff had gathered some of the information about the patient, but it was incomplete and scattered and would have taken me a long time to assemble. I went to HealthInfoNet and immediately accessed what I needed most: notes, most recent labs, pathology reports and images. It was all there. I showed my patient what I had found and he was amazed that we had all the information right there. He was impressed that his care was so well coordinated. Had I not had access to the information, I might have ordered additional tests."
Maine Launches Nation’s Largest Statewide Electronic Health Exchange
Portland, Maine: As policymakers in Washington debate how to reform the nation’s healthcare system, Maine has taken a major step toward transforming how care will be delivered to the state’s 1.3 million residents.
Physicians, hospital leaders, consumer advocates and public health officials gathered in Portland today to announce that Maine’s nonprofit HealthInfoNet network will “go live” this summer, making Maine the largest statewide electronic health information exchange (HIE) using clinical data. Only Delaware and Vermont have similar statewide exchanges in operation.
This announcement coincided with a visit to Maine by the Obama Administration’s top health information technology official, Dr. David Blumenthal, who was the keynote speaker at the statewide Hanley Leadership Forum today in Portland and then visited Maine Medical Center’s emergency department to see first hand how the new system will be used by medical care teams.
Under development for the past five years, HealthInfoNet will allow caregivers quick and efficient access to key clinical information they need to provide the best possible care for their patients. Health information technology is a major element of the nation’s emerging health reform strategy. Electronic exchanges such as HealthInfoNet will be critical in connecting the rapidly growing number of providers using electronic medical records and other systems.
HIEs are expected to reduce medical errors and lead to better, more informed treatment decisions that will save lives and money. As HealthInfoNet expands services across the state, an estimated $50 million per year in healthcare costs is expected to be saved as caregivers order fewer unnecessary and duplicative tests, procedures, prescriptions and hospital admissions.
Despite a substantial budget shortfall, the State of Maine has included $1.7 million in its 2010-2011 budget to allow HealthInfoNet to “go live” this summer and to position Maine for federal matching funds that are expected to be available later this year under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Some $8 million has been raised so far to build HealthInfoNet. Another $12 million is needed to build out the statewide infrastructure. It’s estimated that it will cost approximately $6 million to operate HealthInfoNet on an annual basis.
Beginning this summer, more than 2,000 healthcare providers---including nearly half of the rural and urban hospitals across Maine and one-third of practicing physicians in Maine---will have access for the first time to HealthInfoNet’s secure clinical data repository. Use of the system will be phased in over the next several months.
Hospitals and physician practices taking part in HealthInfoNet’s current demonstration phase (which began in early 2008) account for more than half of the state’s annual inpatient hospital admissions, 50 percent of the annual emergency department visits, and nearly 40 percent of Maine’s outpatient visits each year. Following the successful completion of the demonstration phase in mid-2010, plans call for HealthInfoNet to be expanded over time to include other providers who care for Maine’s entire population.
Today, a significant percentage of patient-specific clinical information in Maine is stored in paper-based records. Paper-based records can be cumbersome for caregivers to access---and very difficult to share, particularly when information is needed on an urgent basis. Through the demonstration phase, many hospitals, physicians and other caregivers across Maine will---for the first time ever---have access (with their patients’ consent) to a more complete and up-to-date clinical profile of their patients. A new consolidated “electronic health record” (EHR) made possible by HealthInfoNet will contain critical information drawn from records that have traditionally been separately maintained in physician practices, hospitals, laboratories and other disparate care settings. Over time, the HealthInfoNet network also will enable individuals to have greater access to their own medical records.
Armed with more complete and timely information, caregivers say they can provide better quality care and improve the coordination of care, particularly for those patients who see several providers and receive care in more than one community or care setting.
Organizations taking part in the demonstration phase include Maine’s four largest health delivery systems (Central Maine Health Care, Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, MaineGeneral Medical Centers and MaineHealth) as well as an independent, multi-site primary care practice, Martin’s Point Health Care, and an independent rural hospital, Franklin Memorial Hospital located in Farmington. Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which is developing a statewide public health information system, will be part of the demonstration phase. This linkage will support the laboratory reporting requirements mandated by Maine law for disease outbreak management purposes.
The health provider organizations listed above include 15 rural and urban hospitals and about 2,000 physicians. Many of Maine’s other community hospitals have been involved in HealthInfoNet’s planning process and are expected to become part of the statewide network following the demonstration phase.
“The efforts of HealthInfoNet to advance electronic information-sharing to improve Maine’s healthcare are extremely important to protect the State’s public health,” said Dr. Dora Anne Mills, of Maine CDC, who pointed out that the federal government has called for the nation to implement more effective real-time public health event monitoring and rapid response in order to ensure that the population is protected from emerging public health threats. “HealthInfoNet is advancing this directive here in Maine,” she said.
According to Dr. Mills, automated electronic reporting of public health threats has been shown nationally to improve the completeness and timeliness of reporting to public health authorities, compared to manual processes, allowing diseases to be detected and responded to earlier. The partnership between Maine CDC and HealthInfoNet will automate reporting from healthcare to public health, shortening the time required to respond to and protect the public from health threats
The information being automated between healthcare organizations and Maine CDC is already required by law to be reported to public health agencies in order to protect communities. The relationship with HealthInfoNet will make this reporting quicker and more complete for about 90% of the volume of testing currently being reported by the participating healthcare laboratories.
HealthInfoNet has retained 3M Health Information Systems and Orion Health to build and operate Maine’s statewide health information exchange, enabling all participating healthcare organizations to achieve semantic interoperability in the exchange of data for patient care. In addition, DrFirst, Inc. has been retained to provide coordination in automating electronic prescribing services and access to medication history information to medical care teams These three organizations have extensive experience building and operating technical networks in the United States and other countries.
Organized as a public-private partnership, HealthInfoNet has received funding support from a wide range of private foundations, provider organizations and state and federal government agencies.
Public opinion research completed in late 2006 found that many Maine people are concerned about the prospect of medical errors and believe that better coordination and communication among their providers is needed to improve healthcare quality and safety. Individuals in Maine and across the nation say they want more access to their own medical records so that they can verify the accuracy of information in the records and become more engaged in their own care. A Consumer Advisory Committee is assisting HealthInfoNet in the establishment of privacy and security policies designed to insure that systems are in place to protect the privacy of individuals’ medical information.
HealthInfoNet was established in early 2006 as a statewide independent nonprofit organization. Its establishment followed a feasibility study and planning and development process that found strong support for a new network. HealthInfoNet’s Board of Directors includes physicians, hospital leaders, consumers, employers, government officials, insurance executives and others.