22 March 2022 While technology knows no bounds, the same could not always be said for important medical test results. Until very recently, Arkansas residents being treated in Tennessee and Mississippi did not have the benefit of having medical test results electronically delivered to their Arkansas physicians and updated in the state’s health information exchange, SHARE. Baptist Memorial, a leading healthcare provider, has gone live with an expanded connection as a data provider with the State Health Alliance for Records Exchange (SHARE).
The recent addition of the Baptist Memorial Health System – 20+ hospitals and 200+ primary care and specialty care facilities in Tennessee and Mississippi, provides for an even more complete community health record for Arkansas residents when getting care across state line. This expansion complements SHARE’s connection to their hospitals and clinics in Arkansas.
As the Arkansas’ only statewide health information exchange, SHARE is an electronic network for hospitals, physicians, medical providers, laboratories, FQHCs and others to safely exchange clinical results and reports. “With respect to healthcare, the speed at which state lines are blurring continues to accelerate, and the addition of an institution as large as Baptist Memorial is momentous,” said Justin Villines, HIT Policy Director of the Office of Health Information Technology that oversees SHARE HIE. “We see a time in the very near future when doctors across the country will have seamless and secure exchange of health information across a borderless system, regardless of where the patient lives, works, or vacations. These are the steps to making that level of clinical access a reality.”
About Baptist Memorial Health Care
Regarded as one of the premier health care systems in the nation, Baptist Memorial Health Care is an award-winning network dedicated to providing compassionate, high-quality care for patients. With 21 affiliate hospitals throughout the Mid-South, Baptist combines convenience with excellence of care — two reasons they have been named among the top health care systems in the country for several years.
With the intention of caring for people close to their homes, the Baptist system also offers more than 5,000 affiliated physicians; home, hospice, and psychiatric care; minor medical clinics; a network of surgery, rehabilitation, and other outpatient centers; and an education system highlighted by the Baptist College of Health Sciences. Since their modest beginning in 1912 with a 150-bed hospital, Baptist has grown to meet the expanding needs of the communities they serve, at one point becoming the largest privately owned hospital in the nation. But what has remained is the same caring atmosphere that inspired their founders. From their kitchen staff and office personnel to their experienced medical staff and renowned clinical services, that pervasive spirit of caring inspires every area of operation at Baptist.
Visit: http://www.baptistonline.org
