Pennsylvania’s Keystone Beacon Community has created a new data sharing capability which will allow skilled nursing facilities to contribute patient information to a regional health information exchange (HIE) without an EHR. Keystone Beacon officials say this information will help physicians, nurses and other care team members to provide better, more coordinated care. [1]
In response to the federal mandate for skilled nursing facilities to submit electronic patient assessments, known as minimum data sets (MDSs), to the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare, software company Caradigm created a MDS-to-CCD Transformer. The transformer extracts patient-care data from the records of participating patients, transforms it into a standard Continuity of Care Document (CCD) format using the system developed by the Keystone Bacon Community, and then transfers it to a secure HIE. There, the patient information can be accessed by a licensed clinician, while still remaining private.
“Putting patients at the center of care means establishing strong connections among a community’s healthcare providers, especially post-acute care organizations,” said Michael Simpson, CEO of Caradigm. “We’re excited to work with Geisinger and the Keystone Beacon Community to enable the sharing of patient information between skilled nursing facilities and regional HIEs. This is an important milestone in improving the quality of care for patients as they make transitions across the health system.”
Keystone Beacon’s new data-sharing initiative was made possible by the Geisinger Clinic, which received a three-year $16 million award from the Office of the National Coordinator to improve health IT and patient care in local communities.
“Any skilled nursing facility can now share a patient’s information inexpensively and securely, which helps the patient’s care team work better together,” according to Jim Walker, MD, Geisinger Health System’s Chief Health Information Officer.
Established in 2009 by the Department of Health and Human Services, the Beacon Community Cooperative Agreement Program is dedicated to advancing the ability of health IT to improve local healthcare systems and reduce cost.
[1] McCann, Erin. “No EHR required with new data-sharing technology.” Healthcare IT News. Web. 09 August 2012.