An overview of the Statewide Health Information Exchange [Jan. 2012]

An Overview of the Statewide
Health Information Exchange
Overview
Georgia's statewide Health Information Exchange (HIE) is a publicprivate collaborative that is building an electronic exchange to share critical health information between health care providers and their patients. The Georgia HIE partnership is managed by the DCH Office of Health Information Technology (OHIT). Partnering with health care industry representatives from all areas of the state and a complete range of health care business sectors, Georgia is building a secure and financially sustainable network that will:
Increase the efficiency of health care delivery Improve health care quality and outcomes Improve coordination of care Reduce overall health care costs Build a healthy Georgia
Georgia's Statewide HIE Initiative
The statewide HIE will be implemented in three phases.
Phase I will provide secure messaging between providers and is expected to be available in the second quarter of 2012. The ability to securely send and receive patient health information can significantly improve care delivery for coordination of care when a patient is referred from one provider to another or is released from a hospital to a nursing home or doctor's outpatient care. Secure message transport also provides a vehicle for providers to receive patient lab results sooner and deliver appropriate care promptly.
Phase II -- The statewide HIE will provide a full set of core services in Phase II along with the capability for providers to request patient information securely from the HIE network of providers. In addition to secure messaging between individual providers developed in Phase I. Phase II is expected to further support patientcentered medical homes and reduce duplication of health care services such as labs and other medical tests.
Phase III-- Value-added services will be available in Phase III of the statewide HIE. The services offered will be based on provider needs and interest and may include insurance eligibility checks, immunization reporting, quality reporting to state and federal agencies and personal health records.
During each phase of the statewide HIE, a key emphasis will be placed on building stakeholder awareness and trust especially among Georgia health care providers and consumers. The statewide HIE will also place critical emphasis on the privacy and security of the individual health consumer's information. Health information will be protected with state-of-the-art technology and best-of-practice policies and processes to assure providers and health care consumers that the individual's health information is safe.
The Georgia Health Information Exchange is 90 percent federally funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). This funding is provided through a Cooperative Agreement with Department of Health and Human Services Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
Georgia Department of Community Health | 2 Peachtree Street NW, Atlanta, GA 30303 | www.dch.georgia.gov | 404-656-4507
January 2012