RALEIGH, N.C., March 31, 2014 – The North Carolina Health Information Exchange (NC HIE) has partnered with Patagonia Health to establish HIE connectivity for several North Carolina local health departments. Person County Health Department in Roxboro and Wilkes County Health Department in Wilkesboro are the two pilot sites that went live last week on the exchange, and NC HIE will continue to roll out connectivity to several additional North Carolina local health departments in the coming weeks through this partnership.
The collaboration is sponsored by the NC Office of Rural Health and Community Care with the aim of providing connectivity between a prominent electronic health records system utilized by a large number of local health departments and NC HIE in order to reduce costs, improve patient care and meet Meaningful Use requirements. Through connection to NC HIE, local health departments will also be provided with Direct secure email, have access to chronic disease registries, and be able to submit data to the NC Immunization Registry (NCIR) and other public health surveillance systems in order to better manage population health.
“Connecting patient information is a crucial step to improving patient care coordination, improving outcomes and reducing healthcare costs,” said Ashok Mathur, CEO and co-founder of Patagonia Health. “As more and more healthcare organizations join NC HIE, patients will experience immense benefits.”
Currently, more than 600 sites statewide are participants of NC HIE including hospitals, ambulatory practices, clinics, local health departments, and long-term care and home health providers. Local health departments serve much of the Medicaid and uninsured patient populations in North Carolina, and connecting them to NC HIE better enables coordination of these vulnerable populations with hospitals.
“This collaboration aligns with NC HIE’s mission to connect all types of healthcare providers across North Carolina and further expand upon those that serve the safety net population,” said NC HIE’s President, Chris Scarboro. “We are fortunate to be partnering with these great North Carolina-based organizations in order to connect providers statewide to significantly improve patient care.”
Connecting to NC HIE means more providers can continue to help improve the quality of healthcare for North Carolina residents, control medical costs and get on the right path toward becoming meaningful users of health information technology. Local health departments will be able to significantly improve care transitions and engage patients in their healthcare through this collaboration.
About The NC DHHS Office of Rural Health and Community Care
With the support of state, federal and philanthropic sources, the Office of Rural Health and Community Care administers a budget of approximately $37 million and provides services in all 100 counties, empowering local communities and supporting them in developing innovative strategies to improve access, quality and cost-effectiveness of healthcare, with a primary focus on the uninsured patient population. To learn more about the DHHS Office of Rural Health and Community Care, visit www.ncdhhs.gov/orhcc.
About Patagonia Health
Patagonia Health Inc. is a healthcare software supplier that has built a cloud and apps-based software solution. The solution includes an integrated, federally-certified, Electronic Health Record (EHR), Practice Management (PM) and Billing software. The company’s mission is to solve two major barriers to EHR adoption, usability and cost, and address customers’ number one problem: billing. Patagonia Health’s one-of-a-kind apps-based system represents a paradigm shift in the EHR software industry, and its highly-intelligent solution uses sophisticated technology that is extremely easy-to-use. Innovative and unique apps provide timely data for organizations to improve workflow, streamline their operations and take their organizations to the next level. For more information, visit www.patagoniahealth.com or email info@patagoniahealth.com.
About NC HIE and CCNC
In February 2013, Community Care of North Carolina (CCNC) and the North Carolina Health Information Exchange (NC HIE) announced an agreement to work together to facilitate the secure transfer of patient data in an effort to improve physicians’ access to healthcare data and electronic health records. This partnership seeks to provide medical professionals across North Carolina with the information they need to make the best medical decisions for their patients. This collaboration will help improve the quality of care patients receive, control medical costs and put physicians on the right path to achieve Meaningful Use (MU). To learn more about NC HIE, visit www.nchie.org. To learn more about CCNC, visit www.communitycare.org.
