Integrating Data to Improve Patient Care

Connecting Community Physicians

Integrating Data to Improve Patient Care

Catholic Health Services (CHS) is committed to enriching clinical data to identify gaps in care, improve care coordination and reduce unnecessary ED and inpatient admissions. To achieve these goals, CHS has incorporated data into their existing workflows, implemented a handheld application to make data truly actionable, and integrated community providers into a larger data network.

Integrating Clinical Information Seamlessly into Epic: CHS takes incoming Healthix CCD data and displays the diagnoses, encounters, medications and allergies within their Epic system. The Healthix data displays alongside their own network data, giving providers a more complete patient view.

Healthix Alerts are Routed into a Handheld Application: CHS is now using a handheld application to route Healthix Alerts directly to providers who can intervene with patients in the ER before they are admitted. This crucial intervention ensures that the patient receives the appropriate care, without unnecessary admissions to the ED or hospital.

The goal of free-flowing data among community providers is challenged by varying levels of technology at the providers’ sites and the need for patient consent. CHS is proactively addressing these challenges.

Integrating Community Providers into CHS: (1) by using one-to-one exchange to assist in the flow of patient data and (2) by helping the 400 community practices in their IPA to connect with Healthix.