The Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaborative, a national consortium of health information exchanges, launched the national rollout of its Patient Centered Data Home program, the nonprofit confirmed Jan. 4.
The Patient Centered Data Home is an "inter-HIE notification" system, according to SHIEC. The program aligns patient identity records across several HIEs and uses this capability to proactively alert physicians when one of their patients has a health event at a participating hospital.
To develop the Patient Centered Data Home, SHIEC relied on the Admission, Discharge, Transfer messages generated when a patient checks in at a hospital. These messages typically include patient demographic information like names and addresses.
Using zip code information, the Patient Centered Data Home system detects when a patient is admitted to a facility in a different city from their home, and alerts the patient's local HIE. If the local HIE houses relevant records, it goes on to alert the HIE at which the patient is receiving treatment.
"The HIEs working together to create PCDH built a powerful foundation for interoperability between HIEs," said Dan Porreca, chair of the SHIEC board of directors. "We're very proud of this accomplishment and the milestone we've achieved."
Prior to the national Patient Centered Data Home go-live, SHIEC established three smaller variations in the western, heartland and central regions of the U.S. Once these trial implementations proved successful, SHIEC connected the three regional networks into a nationwide program.