This new quarterly e-newsletter will keep you informed about the statewide progress with patient enrollment in CurrentCare, new data-sharing partners, and the services available to help your practice.

More than 232,000 Rhode Islanders are now enrolled in CurrentCare and, thanks to you, more are enrolling every day. The staff at the Rhode Island Quality Institute (RIQI) acknowledge and appreciate your commitment to informing your patients about the importance of enrolling in the statewide Health Information Exchange.

In this issue, you'll see a list of enrollment and data-sharing partners. You'll read about the successful enrollment efforts at the Providence Community Health Centers and Valley Primary Care in Middletown and about the value of the Patient Record Inquiry Service and Provider Notification.

We want to hear from you:  Please send questions and suggestions for future newsletter content to Cathy Coffin.

Learn more about CurrentCare.

For Merrill Thomas, CEO of PCHC, the key to the organization's success was staff support. To drive enrollment, PCHC decided to incent workers financially, sharing the $3 per patient CurrentCare enrollment reward with the entire organization.

"Philosophically, we believed it was good for our patients, so we wanted to encourage them to enroll," explained Thomas. "To help in that effort, we told all staff that when 10,000 patients had signed up, each would each get a $100 American Express gift card. Everyone on the staff is instrumental to our success and we wanted them to know we recognized that."

To make it easy for staff, and for patients, the organization seamlessly integrated enrollment into the registration process. When new patients check in, CurrentCare is presented as a standard of care at PCHC; 95 percent of patients see the value and enroll immediately. The front desk staff, who are all CurrentCare enrollees themselves, can explain the benefits or answer any questions.

"Providers, says Merrill, are equally as essential to PCHC's enrollment success. They support CurrentCare because, clinically, they understand the value in having it. Without access to information from other sources, like lab results or prescription medications, physicians feel like they're providing care in the dark." Read more.

The following providers, practices, labs, and hospitals recently began enrolling patients in CurrentCare:

Anchor Medical Associates

East Side Clinical Laboratory

Landmark Medical Center

Christopher W. Ley, MD, Inc.

Hospitals sending admission, discharge, and transfer (ADT) information to CurrentCare:

Kent Hospital

South County Hospital

Women & Infants Hospital

Hospitals soon to provide ADT information:

Hasbro Children's Hospital

Memorial Hospital of RI

The Miriam Hospital

Newport Hospital

Our Lady of Fatima Hospital

Rhode Island Hospital

Roger Williams Medical Center 

CVS Caremark

Medco

RiteAid

Walgreens

The following practices and hospitals have been leaders in the total number of patients enrolled in CurrentCare:

Aquidneck Medical Associates

Peter G. Brassard, MD

Coastal Medical, Inc.

Memorial Hospital of RI

Providence Community Health Centers

Roger Williams Medical Center

South County Hospital

Thundermist Health Centers

Continuity of Care Documents (CCDs) are being sent to CurrentCare from

Blackstone Valley Community Health Center

Cumberland Primary Care

Family Health and Sports Medicine

South County Internal Medicine

University Family Medicine, Inc.

University Medical Group/Pontiac Ave 

CCDs to be sent soon from

East Bay Community Action Program

East Greenwich Family Practice

Family Care Center/ Memorial Hospital 

Office of Drs. Stephen Maguire, Dariusz  Kostrzewa, Michael Gonzalez and Catherine DeGood

NRI Medical Services, Inc.

Warren Family Practice 

Lab sending data to CurrentCare:

East Side Clinical Laboratory

CurrentCare enrollment tops 70 percent at Valley Primary Care

"CurrentCare is a critical step to improving patient care . . . Immediate access to specialist or emergency treatment information means we can provide more timely follow-up." ---Mike Weiss

Valley Primary Care in Middletown isn't a large practice, but when it comes to CurrentCare, its participation as an enrollment partner is significant.

 

Valley became a CurrentCare enrollment partner in 2009, driven by the support of its sole physician, Dr. Paul Del Guercio, and practice manager Mike Weiss. One of the first program partners in the state, the staff decided to get behind the program early because "it just made sense," according to Weiss. 

 

"The old way of accessing information from providers didn't adequately protect patients, especially in emergency situations," explains Weiss. "If someone went to the ER during the night or over a weekend when physician offices are closed, it was difficult to get critical information for proper treatment."

 

To improve the care of its patient population, Weiss and the rest of the office staff have enrolled 2,041 patients--about 70 percent of the practice's active list. To encourage enrollment, Weiss trained the staff on how to present the information about the Health Information Exchange to patients, address their questions, and ease completion of the enrollment form by filling out demographic information for patients. Since the practice has enrollment down to a science, Weiss says it takes less than a minute to complete the process. Read more.

Provider Notification is a service of CurrentCare that uses Direct messaging to notify PCPs when their consented patients have an inpatient, outpatient, or emergency department encounter at a participating hospital. This real-time electronic notification is referred to as admission, discharge, or transfer (ADT) and includes clinical information about these patients in both human-readable and machine-readable formats. Notifications are available only for patients who are enrolled in CurrentCare. 

A primary goal of Provider Notification is to improve care transitions for patients to decrease the number of hospital readmissions. In addition, timely follow-up care after a hospital encounter will improve outcomes and reduce costs.

To date, 6 practices have subscribed to the service, and 2,838 Direct messages have been sent to providers' secure Direct email accounts. Kent Hospital, Women & Infants Hospital, and South County Hospital are sending ADT data to CurrentCare. Roger Williams Medical Center; Memorial Hospital of RI; and Rhode Island, The Miriam, Newport, and Our Lady of Fatima Hospitals will begin sending ADT messages in the next few months.

To subscribe to the Provider Notification service, you first need to establish Direct messaging accounts for your practice. Download Getting Started with Direct. For more information, please contact Joyce Coutu (jcoutu@riqi.org; 276-9141, ext. 230.

Enrollment partners can best engage their patients and drive enrollment in the statewide HIE if staff at all levels are trained and knowledgeable about CurrentCarre's benefits. Be sure to get "buy in" from all professional, administrative, and support staff. A united effort that reflects a shared understanding of the benefits of CurrentCare can have a tremendous impact on enrollment.

Learn more about the benefits of CurrentCare.

The Rhode Island Quality Institute's Regional Extension Center (RI REC) will host its 4th Health IT Expo on September 6, 2012, from 4 to 8 pm at the Crowne Plaza in Warwick. This year's theme is "Align. Adapt. Achieve." 

The Expo is free for all RI providers, their staff, and other members of the health care community. Event details and registration information will be available soon

on RI REC's Education and Event calendar at www.DocEHRtalk.org.