PENNSYLVANIA
Edited from: Harrisburg Health Information Exchange submits ARRA grant By Kelly Lewis 9/11/2009 - 1:14:30 PM
The Harrisburg Health Information Exchange (HHIE) was established in 2007 by the HHIE Advisory Board and TechQuest Pennsylvania. Its goal is to bring together health care and community leaders to improve health care quality, costs, access and patient safety through deployment of health information technologies within and between health care organizations in the greater Harrisburg medical referral region.
Through our collective efforts, we want to speed the deployment of electronic medical records, electronic prescription solutions and health information exchange technologies to improve health care quality at the most critical time: the point of care.
Because we are in the state capital region, we will also develop and showcase best practices to advance public policy awareness, legislative support and funding to help our region as well as other regions in the commonwealth.
The HHIE Advisory Board, chaired by Michael Fiaschetti of Highmark Blue Shield, and many volunteers have devoted thousands of hours to develop the HHIE strategy to help more than 1,000 primary care providers achieve meaningful use of electronic health records. Through the EMR adoption and use committee, chaired by Holy Spirit Hospital Chief Information Officer Edith Dees, and the HHIE Physicians Advisory Board, chaired by Dr. Joseph Cincotta of Heritage Medical Group, the HHIE is uniquely positioned to help physicians and health care providers achieve meaningful use of electronic health records.
The Harrisburg area is a national leader in the adoption of health information technology. Their hospitals are in the top 10 percent, according to the latest Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society's (HIMSS) electronic medical record (EMR) adoption model. Their physicians have an EMR adoption rate that is 25 percent higher than the national average. Their health insurance providers are nationally recognized for their use of technology and innovation to improve health care quality.
