QHN Subscription Service - Changing how providers receive and use data
It's been proven, time and again, that when patient data is readily accessible by providers, at the point of care, the provider will be able to make better, more well-informed decisions for the patient. A service offered by QHN, called Patient Subscription, offers providers options to have future data on their patients, or a select list or group of patients, proactively "pushed" to them. 

"Providers can create a patient group or list and they can have different lists for different patient subsets or condition types," said Marc Lassaux, QHN Chief Technical Officer. "The solution allows for flexibility in the groups created and the data sent from the HIE.  For example, a care team may want only ED admit alerts for a group of high-risk patients so they may work in near real time with them, or a primary care practice wants inpatient discharge alerts for their entire patient panel so they can do efficient follow-up.  This service allows for the proactive notification of care events and results delivery without providers having to go and search." Subscription is a unique HIE routing service as the trigger for the data to be sent is not based on the provider being associated with the care event, i.e. not listed as the ordering, referring, consulting or admitting provider, but the provider with whom the patient is associated.

Providers Receive More Complete Patient Data

"I must tell you - getting all the info on all our patients makes me understand how much we do not know what our patients do," says Dr. Glenn Kotz, Family Medicine Physician with Mid-Valley Family Practice, in  Basalt, Colorado. Mid-Valley subscribed their entire patient panel in the late summer of 2016. To date, QHN has 20 providers/organizations utilizing subscription, covering 296,000 patient lives. 
2016 QHN Participant Survey Helps Us Set Priorities
QHN would like to thank all of our participants who took the time to complete the QHN Flash Survey. What we learned from your feedback helps us to better understand your usage of the QHN system and needs in this complex healthcare environment. This information is invaluable to us as we establish our future priorities and initiatives for 2017.  

We heard from more than 480 of our participants, an impressive almost 20 percent response rate. In summary, we heard that the vast majority of you, 86 percent, think QHN provides the HIE services and products you need. The services you find of greatest value are, results delivery, and access to the Patient Summary (longitudinal patient record). Survey respondents' comments included: "QHN streamlines our practice and gets rid of a lot of guesswork when it comes to treating patients. An essential tool!" and "It is so nice to be able to log into QHN and have results from everywhere."

Respondents Want QHN to Continue the Commitment to Add More Sources

Many survey respondents also commented that they would like to see us add more information/sources to the QHN system. "It would be very helpful to have access to local primary care and specialty care clinic progress notes and lab results as well" and "I would love to see a full interface with CORHIO at some point so that we have access to referral information for the eastern side of the state."
Update on State Health IT Roadmap Project
In mid-September the Colorado Office of eHealth Innovation (OeHI) and the eHealth Commission completed a series of five Envisioning Workshops that were held in different locations around the state of Colorado.  The purpose of the Workshops was to identify stakeholder wants and needs for HIT in Colorado.  The output of the Workshops was a list of 14 health IT Objectives.  These Objectives were presented in a widely distributed statewide survey that asked the respondents to prioritize the Objectives as high, medium, or low.

Carrie Paykoc, State Health IT Coordinator noted that, "the response to the survey was overwhelming, with 848 Coloradans responding. QHN participated as one of the organizations inviting stakeholders to take the survey, with 170 of those invited by QHN responding." The Survey results will be presented to the eHealth Commission during their December meeting. Upcoming events for the Roadmap project in 2017 include a January Capabilities Workshop and February Enablers Workshop.
Patient Centered Data Home™ - Excellent New Issue Brief
The ultimate vision for the electronic exchange of health information is to have all health information follow the patient no matter when or where they receive care. In this ideal electronic health record world, if a patient experiences a care event in another state, or outside their typical health care "home," their records would follow them and be available to all their providers of care.
 
This is the concept behind the Patient Centered Data Home™ (PCDH). Providers, utilizing Subscription, are automatically notified when one of their patients receives care outside their normal "home," and there is verification that patient information is available. The provider can then initiate a simple targeted query across state or other geopolitical lines to access real-time information. The first successful PDCH pilot involved QHN, the Arizona Health-e Connection (AzHeC) and the Utah Health Information Network (UHIN). A new issue brief from Rocky Mountain Health Plans discusses the development and deployment of PCDH, and explores how it could transform health care delivery.  
QHN Continues to Expand the Exchange of Ambulatory Information
As we heard in our recent participant survey the thousands of health providers across western Colorado who access information in the QHN Patient Summary (longitudinal health record), are interested in QHN continuing to acquire more ambulatory data.  The data contained in QHN is of great value to providers and helps create a full picture of the patient to support the clinical decision process.
 
In an effort to further the acquisition of ambulatory data including, CCDs, progress/encounter notes and transcription, QHN is participating in the Colorado Advanced Interoperability Initiative (CAII) grant. The goal of the grant is to enhance the exchange of ambulatory information, improve care transitions and to support long-term/post-acute care providers via the exchange of clinical data. We have recently completed work with the below listed organizations to send QHN their Continuity of Care Documents (CCDs), which are now accessible in the Patient Summary, and work continues with many others.
  • Home Care of the Grand Valley
  • Elite Care at Home
  • Plateau Valley Medical Clinic
  • Sopris Medical Practice
  • Aspen Valley Pediatrics
  • Colorado West Womancare of the Grand Valley (Includes Grand Valley Midwives)
  • Dinosaur Junction Pediatrics
  • Castle Valley Children's Clinic
  • Mind Springs (progress note)
Hot Topics Conference Call


Date: January 18, 2017
Time: 12:15 -1:15 PM
Presenters: The QHN Clinical Team 
MACRA: 10 Things to Know
Finally ­figuring out PQRS, VM and MU? Don't get too comfortable...

A infographic from AthenaInsight helps you quickly see how the MACRA ruling creates a whole new framework to drive providers to value-based care. 
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