Health Information Exchange in Washington State
LATEST PROJECT UPDATE
Updated July 12, 2010
NEW - HIE Strategic and Operational Plans:
HCA's Richard Onizuka, the State Health information Technology Coordinator recently submitted Washington State's Strategic and Operational Plans to the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC). The plans were prepared over the past several months in a joint effort by OneHealthPort and HCA with input from public and private stakeholders. The plans are an important milestone for the Statewide HIE effort. Before the Statewide HIE can expend HITECH funds on technology solutions, ONC has to approve the plans. Based on experience in other states, it is likely that ONC will request modifications be made to the documents. After some back and forth between ONC and the HIE team, we hope the plans will be approved sometime before September 30. As the Statewide HIE matures and more is known about the services, this preliminary version of the plans will be updated and refined.
The major focus of the Statewide HIE over the next few months will be the procurement of a Secure Hub. We have contracted with Deloitte to assist us in preparing the RFP. We will be advised by the HIE Leadership Group and their Technical Advisory Group throughout the selection process. We hope to distribute the RFP sometime in August and complete the selection process by early October. If you are not already receiving project notification emails and are interested in knowing when a copy of the RFP is posted, please be sure to sign up below.
Register for Notices on HIE meetings and RFP documents
Historical Project Updates
May 10, 2010 Update:
We've been busy over the last few months with a variety of activities related to the advancement of HIE in Washington state. The highlights are listed below:
ARRA Cooperative Agreement
OneHealthPort has been working with HCA to understand and address the requirements of the ARRA Cooperative Agreement. This is a developing story as the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) develops it own infrastructure and refines its direction to its Cooperative Agreement partners. The key deliverables we are currently focused on are the strategic and operational plans HCA will submit to the ONC by 6/30/10. These plans will outline our overall approach to advancing HIE in Washington State over the next four years. We are presently on target for completion by 6/30/10.
HIE Governance
Consistent with the requirements we gathered from the community this fall and validated in February, OneHealthPort and HCA put out an RFP for a qualified not-for-profit to serve as the community oversight organization. The apparent successful respondent is the Foundation for Health Care Quality. The Foundation has a long history of service to the Washington State health care community. The Foundation has been working to help address shared health information needs since 1988. As the Community Oversight Organization the Foundation will review and act on the pricing model,
privacy/security policies and access policies developed by OneHealthPort, the Lead Organization. In addition, the Foundation will monitor HCA's administration of the ARRA Cooperative Agreement. OneHealthPort and HCA are currently engaged in contract discussion with the Foundation to finalize the proposed arrangement. The HIE governance roles and responsibilities are described in this EXHIBIT .
Shared HIE Services
OneHealthPort received clear guidance from community stakeholders in prioritizing shared HIE services. The initial phase of HIE in Washington state will consist of:
- Hub for the secure exchange of HL7 and X12 messages
- Master Person Index (MPI) for matching patient identities
- Record Locater Service (RLS) for determining patient record locations
- Directory for identifying provider and entity trading partners
- Process for developing and maintaining community standards and conventions
- Management organization to develop and deploy the shared HIE services
In understanding the shared services model it is also helpful to understand the services that will not be offered centrally by the State Wide HIE:
- Data transformation (i.e., harmonizing data)
- Data repository (i.e., no central aggregation of clinical information)
- Applications (i.e., no central electronic medical record, personal health record, viewer)
It is important to note that while these services will not be delivered by the State-Wide HIE, it is assumed other organizations and vendors will likely offer some or all of these services to interested participants. This EXHIBIT illustrates the decentralized, thin-layer HIE described above.
Early Adopters
As OneHealthPort concludes the initial phase of planning activity the primary challenge ahead is adoption. To build a sustainable HIE it is essential to gain rapid adoption by a critical mass of health care organizations. To this end OneHealthPort has convened the HIE Leadership Group to advise us as we move toward implementation. The members of the HIE Leadership Group meet the following criteria:
- They bring experience and expertise in HIT/HIE
- They represent organizations that currently have information to exchange
- They were identified as priority trading partners by other critical mass organizations
This EXHIBIT lists the members of the HIE Leadership Group. This group will guide OneHealthPort in the development of the next level of requirements and recommendations related to the HUB and the MPI/RLS. All work products from the HIE Leadership Group will be available for review and comment by the larger community on this site as they become available. There are no work products to review yet.
Next Steps
Key next steps include:
- Completion of the strategic and operational plan
- Execution of an agreement with the Foundation for Health Care Quality
- Development of an RFP to the vendor community for procurement of a Hub.
- Preparation of recommendations related to deployment of the MPI and RLS. These recommendations will identify the preferred approach to the MPI and RLS for Washington State's HIE.
Please note, development of this RFP is just underway. It is NOT complete, and it is NOT available for distribution to, or review by, interested vendors. When the RFP is available, the announcement will be posted here and email notification will be sent to all those who have registered on this site for notifications
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Project Background
Moving Ahead with Health Information Exchange
The health industry in the Evergreen State has been working for years to improve patient outcomes and reduce costs. One of the
main barriers to progress has been the inability to easily share health information between and among health organizations. Because
patient information is fragmented across hundreds of enterprises, it is difficult for any one enterprise to significantly improve
their performance without engaging their trading partners.
Technology and business solutions need to be created that allow organizations to appropriately share data externally, while also
enhancing use of information internally. Clearly, there is a need for comprehensive Health Information Exchange (HIE).
While some communities and organizations in Washington state have organized effective HIE solutions on a local or organization-wide
basis, a statewide cross-enterprise solution that makes long-term business sense has not been achieved.
Now, with engagement and support from the public sector, a concerted private sector-led effort is taking shape to advance Health
Information Exchange in Washington state.
Federal & State Support - Private Sector Engagement
During 2009, the U.S. Congress and the Washington State Legislature enacted laws in support of robust Health Information Exchange.
In Olympia, a new law was enacted to accelerate the secure exchange of "high value" health data - including lab results, medications,
immunizations, diagnostic images, and others. The law directs the Washington State Health Care Authority (HCA) to designate a private
sector organization to lead implementation of HIE.
The Federal program - named the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act - is briefly described in the sidebar.
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