Little Rock– The Arkansas Department of Health's (ADH) network of Local Health Units (LHU) is now using the State Health Alliance for Records Exchange (SHARE), one of the country's largest and most robust health information exchanges (HIE). LHUs can now access clinical information across participating entities for patients who have authorized sharing their medical information, allowing clinics to have accurate and up to date results for their patients.
There are 93 clinics across the state, including at least one in every county in the state. They provide prenatal care, family planning, annual exams, maternity care, breast care, immunizations, sexually transmitted disease testing and community outreach.
"As the healthcare landscape continues to transform, HIEs continue to play a key role in providing data that fuels innovation. SHARE and the ADH Local Health Units are working together to contribute to these innovation efforts such as population health initiatives, assisting with high-risk patients and identifying potential social determinants of health," said Anne Santifer, Executive Director of the Office of Health Information Technology.
In Arkansas, where many health systems use disparate EHR systems, this is a particularly important milestone. SHARE will allow Local Health Unit providers access to a variety of test results and medical records as well as discharge summaries from outside hospitals and specialty clinics within their Greenway EMR System. The following patient data can be viewed through SHARE's Virtual Health Record (VHR):
- Admission, Discharge and Transfer Data
- Allergies, Problems, Medications
- Demographics and Insurance Information
- Laboratory Results, Radiology Reports
- Discharge Summaries
- Continuity of Care Documents (CCDs)
- Progress Notes
Accessing patient information through this secure exchange allows better coordination with hospitals, specialists, and referral partners. Clinics will be able to see more robust picture of their patient's medical histories, ensuring an efficient and safe continuity of care.
SHARE's VHR display information as a traditional clinical chart, with tabs to separate patient information into groups for easy chart review. VHR retrieves and shows all available data for a selected patient gathered form all participants within SHARE to enable a single, consolidated view of a patient's health history.
SHARE's continued mission is to provide better information to support high quality patient care for the Arkansas healthcare community by increasing real-time patient data results in the HIE when doctors, providers and care teams need it.