Hawaii Health Information Exchange is developing a community master patient index to increase providers' and patients' access to patients' most up-to-date health information, Pacific Business News reports.
The new patient index is part of HHIE's recent $2.5 million investment to enhance technology used by the statewide HIE, according to the report. The organization began rolling out the investments in 2018.
The master patient index will feature real-time alerts and notifications as well as single sign-on support. With the new technology, HHIE can issue electronic alerts to notify healthcare providers when one of their patients is admitted to or discharged from an emergency department.
"Often times a primary care physician isn't aware when a patient is admitted to the hospital," HHIE medical director Rebecca Burton, MD, told Pacific Business News. "Now with these real-time notifications, patients can receive follow-up care."
HHIE is collaborating with NextGate, a patient matching and healthcare data company, on the patient index. The platform will allow healthcare and social services providers access to patients' most current health information regardless of what EHR system the data is stored in. Nearly 35 different EHR systems are actively used by Hawaii healthcare providers, Dr. Burton said.