An Enterprise Health Information Network is an enabling technology for a tightly affiliated group of hospitals, Physician practices, labs and similar entities to engage in electronic collaboration within the context of patient treatment. With an EHIN in place, each of the entities/systems in the network is able to consume as well as contribute patient treatment related information with one another. The different entities in such a network may be part of the same hospital or Integrated Delivery Network (IDN) or Health Maintenance Organization (HMO).

In addition to enabling a single view of the patients’ clinical information across multiple entities in the network, an EHIN also enables aggregation and a single view of such information between disparate systems in the same enterprise. Examples of such systems are Radiology information systems, Hospital information systems, PACS systems, pharmacy information systems, Lab information systems etc. which may be part of the same hospital. HealthUnity™ serves to bridge the gap between such disparate systems by providing the ability to define a canonical standard set of information schemas that serves to alleviate the need to write point to point interfaces between such systems. In addition, this makes the task of integrating new systems into the EHIN much simpler.

Besides improving the quality of care as a result of timely availability of accurate information, EHIN also increases efficiency and reduces costs. Processes that originally relied heavily on human involvement for data access and transmission can be streamlined using the collaboration and communication medium provided by an EHIN.

Any health information network must adhere to a high level of security and privacy rules when handling confidential patient information. We have given careful consideration to privacy and security guidelines laid down by HIPAA. Role-based security, user authentication, data encryption using Public Key Cryptographic Services (PKCS), access control rules, opt-in/opt-out settings, audit log capability and many more features are provided out of the box.

The HealthUnity EHIN approach is comprehensive. We provide the products needed for building the network including adapters for existing applications. Combine this with a strong professional services and support offerings and partners who offer solutions and you have the best solution in the market for initiating, building, growing and sustaining an IDN-wide health information network that has no parallel.

The Enterprise Health Information Network provides the ability for different entities such as Hospitals, Emergency Departments, Physician Practices, Labs and Radiology Centers operating within an IDN or HMO to connect to one another over a secure network and exchange clinical information electronically. The need for such a network has been realized for many years now. However, the integration technology available has not been able to deliver to the requirements. It will help for us to summarize the problems addressed by building an EHIN.

Inefficiencies leading to higher costs in today’s model

• Collaboration happens today via snail mail, faxing and other manual means. These operations take up valuable time and are inherently labor intensive. They are also not necessarily secure and address HIPAA privacy concerns
• One option is to build a web portal solution. However, portals (where available) enable viewing of information, but do not provide a method to import and incorporate them into local point of care systems.
• Proliferation of point to point interfaces increases costs involved in integrating systems in an exponential manner. These point to point interfaces are also very difficult to manage and support.
• Non availability of prior treatment information increases possibility of repeated tests and procedures even within a single IDN’s facilities. Many insurance carriers reject claims arising from such repeated tests. With pay for performance already taking shape, those organizations that address these issues proactively will be far more ready to face the newly emerging scenario.

Quality of Care Issues

• Patient clinical information is typically locked away in multiple silos of data within the IDN. Critical information available in one location may never be known to another provider treating a common patient in another facility. Patients may not know enough to be able to convey this information intelligently themselves.
• There is typically a longer turn around time for fulfilling requests for historical lab / radiology results as well as hospital discharge information when using non-electronic means. A critical report could take days to reach your own outpatient clinic that requested it.
• Non integration of clinical information such as medications from each of your facilities leads to reduced chances of detecting drug to drug as well as drug-allergy interactions.

Patient Experience

• Patient experience suffers as a result of the lack of information which could be leveraged to streamline operations and improve quality of care. Patient’s confidence in the system often will get diminished when they see their information is not being electronically communicated. This is especially disconcerting to patients who believe that the integration problem has been solved within the walls of the IDN.
• Patient may be required to fill out the same, time-consuming information at multiple entities within the same IDN or in many cases within the same physical facility.

The HealthUnity™ solution provides at the core, a set of software and services that enable secure connectivity between participating systems that are in use in point of care. The network is built on standards which enable multiple facilities in the IDN to collaborate without having to build non-standard interfaces. It is also built with stringent privacy policies in place which enable tight control over both publishing as well as receiving information by involved systems. E.g. a system that deals with mental health may be excluded from publishing data to the network while it can see data from the other sources. The HealthUnity™ network consists of an ever increasing set of services delivered on the network, which progressively takes the bar of connected collaboration to a new level. The HealthUnity™ solution addresses and resolves the problem areas discussed above.

For systems that enable integration, HealthUnity provides the required set of adapters which allows bidirectional transfer of clinical information either in an automated manner or on demand by the appropriate users. We provide various means of UI integration including a smart client that can run side by side, a set of web services that can be integrated into an existing or new UI as well as a pre-built web UI that can be used stand alone or integrated with an existing portal. Data level integration is also enabled by the system using standard document types such as HL7, XML etc.

The HealthUnity™ network enables clinical information sources such as your lab information system as well as radiology information systems (and PACS) to automate the delivery of the results generated to other systems in the IDN. The EHIN provides the ability for them to incorporate the results into their respective backend systems. This alleviates the need to build point to point integration technologies with each system.

Our approach is radical yet simple. The HealthUnity solution begins with planning the network. We offer a pre-packaged plan that can be customized in a short period of time. Once this plan is done and signed off by the IDN, it takes us under a day to configure the product to provide the network services to build out an EHIN. Each system that joins this network can do so with a standardized implementation plan with predictable results at a predictable cost. The workflows across the EHIN are all standardized and readily available. Here are some of those workflows: Demographics exchange; secure messaging; ED data – medications history, problems list, allergies, and immunizations; electronic referrals; results delivery (lab, radiology); inpatient progress notes and discharge summaries etc. These workflows are easily customizable and deployable on the EHIN.

The HealthUnity solution delivers extraordinary value to the following participants.

Hospitals and IDNs (and HMOs)

• Reduce costs and increase speed by disseminating information such as discharge summaries electronically to other providers in the IDN who care for common patients
• Increase utilization of the technology by “pushing” machine readable information to your extended set of facilities rather than they having to come and log in to your web portal and look for changes
• Improve the quality of care of your patients by contributing your portion of data to the longitudinal clinical record of the patient across your entire enterprise
• Provide better experience to staff/employed physicians by extending access to hospital-generated information to their own practices. Also, access to their clinic data is available while they are in rounds at the hospital
• Improve patient experience and turn around times by leveraging relevant information retrieved from the network. Your patients will love the experience they get at your facilities
• Reduce your cost of technology by building a “point-to-multi-point” solution rather than a “one-off” point-to-point integration solution
• For a low up-front investment you will be able to try an enterprise network approach to data sharing. Build incrementally from those early successes

Outpatient Physician Practices in the IDN/HMO

• Improve efficiency and save costs by adopting electronic collaboration methods for performing referrals, consults, etc between the clinics you own and operate. By keeping more of the referrals within your network, you increase revenue generated to your organization
• Receive lab/radiology results, Hospital discharge summaries and other clinical documents soon after they are generated, avoiding lengthy delays and labor
• Improve quality of care by leveraging instantly available clinical history from the entire enterprise/IDN
• Improve patient experience by leveraging relevant information readily available in the network
• Incorporate electronic data into patient records without complex manual processes
• Begin to see the true value that your investment in EMRs and PMS can bring by securely connecting to the network and accessing key data sources that are spread across your IDN facilities and systems

Emergency Departments

• Improve quality of care by leveraging critical clinical information such as medications history, problems list and allergies information from the entire set of facilities that are part of your IDN
• Reduce treatment delays and costly paper chasing by accessing clinical as well as lab/radiology test results from the network. Also avoiding duplication of tests will mean that your reimbursements will be higher and there are less collection issues
• Efficiently and electronically distribute ED notes to those providers who provide follow on care after the ED episode is completed. You can proactively transfer patients to one of your outpatient or inpatient providers after the ED encounter is completed

Labs and Radiology Centers

• Increase efficiency and reduce costs by electronically distributing result information to ordering physicians in your IDN
• Improve customer experience by ensuring result information is made available to ordering physicians as soon as it is generated
• Reduce the probability of double specimen draws or repeat patient inconveniencing (e.g. pre-exam dietary restrictions, administration of barium etc) by electronically fulfilling requests for past study findings
• Reduce the risk of rejection of insurance claims because of a test that was repeated

Patients

• Streamlined experience at all of your facilities in the IDN - at check-in, referral, treatment, follow on care…
• Physicians gain access to key clinical documents without patients having to carry around those documents and exposing those key clinical documents to potential theft, misplacement etc
• Patients will benefit by quality of care improvements and your IDN will further gain their trust and appreciation!