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HealthInfoNet Part of $33M Grant Awarded for Healthcare Innovation
HealthInfoNet will be a partner in the State Innovation Models (SIM) grant awarded by CMS to the State of Maine. The three-year grant with total funding of just over $33 million will be used to help improve care and reduce health costs in Maine. Specific areas of focus include supporting current payment and delivery reform efforts and using health information technology to better understand cost and quality to inform health reform efforts across Maine. Grant participants include MaineCare, the Maine Health Management Coalition, HealthInfoNet and Quality Counts.
Proposed HealthInfoNet activities include the following:
- Providing automated notifications to care managers when MaineCare patients are admitted to a hospital emergency room or inpatient unit.
- Continuing to help Maine's behavioral health providers adopt health information technology including electronic records and connection to the statewide health information exchange operated by HealthInfoNet.
- Providing a method for patients to download their information in HealthInfoNet through a provider-based portal.
- Supporting quality of care measurements across the State.
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Connecting Mental Health Providers
In January of 2012, HealthInfoNet was one of five organizations awarded a federal contract to improve the integration of mental health and general medical care using health information technology. With help from the Hanley Center for Health Leadership and a broad group of stakeholders, HealthInfoNet has used this funding over the past year to plan for and begin to connect 20 mental health organizations/agencies to the HIE, five of which will be able to submit information (accessible only with patient consent), while the rest will be able to view their patient's general medical information in the HIE. In 2013, patients will have the choice to share their mental health information among their medical providers. Providers and patients are looking forward to this integration and see this of great importance to care coordination, patient experience, care quality and safety.
"Having integrated health records for both physical and mental health is imperative to whole health care. My family doctor having access to my therapist and psychiatric nurse has meant that I can talk freely to each one about issues that arise and they each encourage me in my journey of recovery. This has been especially important when it comes to medication and side effects."
Lydia Richard, Patient & Administrative Assistant, Advocacy Initiative Network of Maine
"We're pleased to partner with HealthInfoNet and with consumers to answer questions and address concerns they may have about sharing their health information. We are eager to help them understand the tremendous benefits available with this new technology. While risks are inherent in all information sharing, HealthInfoNet offers the promise of improved health outcomes by allowing providers to work together more seamlessly and by having critical information readily available in times of emergency as well as routine care."
Catherine Ryder, Executive Director, Tri-County Mental Health Services
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User Profile: Daniel Mazza, DO
Daniel Mazza, DO, works in Southern Maine Medical Center's Emergency Department Fast Track where he sees people with minor medical emergencies. He is one of HealthInfoNet's top users. How often do you use HealthInfoNet? I use it every day I work, the whole shift. On some days I look up every patient I see. How has it improved your workflow? It's saved time. While a patient is in the waiting room, I'll look them up in HealthInfoNet before I see them. This way I have a good background of their health and medical conditions. And if I need information from another hospital, I don't have to wait for records to be faxed. HealthInfoNet gives me access to records that before would have taken 30-45 minutes to get, and the patient would have been waiting all that time. What do you find most useful about HealthInfoNet? If I had to pick one, I'd say the medication list. Patients often don't know the dosage of meds they are on. They'll say I'm on a blood pressure pill or my doctor put me on an antibiotic. They didn't bring it with them or know what it is. With HIN, I can see what those medications are and get it into the record. Also access to labs and diagnostic imaging reports are very helpful. What are some of the benefits of using HealthInfoNet for you and your patients? It expedites getting necessary information and allows patients to be seen more efficiently. When we request records, we often get back a big pile of paper that's much more difficult to go through than HealthInfoNet. For patients, HealthInfoNet will improve their care. The more information we have on someone the better treatment we can provide. 
Hear more of what Dr. Mazza had to say in this short video.
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Statewide Image Archive Progressing
HealthInfoNet continues to get a lot of outside attention for its first in the nation statewide image archive project. And for good reason! The new service will reduce the cost of storage and transport of electronic medical images and make sharing these images possible through the health information exchange (HIE). Onsite Dell storage equipment has now been setup for both Cary Medical Center and Central Maine Health Care organizations, with Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems and Mercy Hospital close behind. Integration activities are now in full swing with image integration into HealthInfoNet's Clinical Portal expected to be complete by mid-March. Participants in the pilot phase of the project include Cary Medical Center, Central Maine Health Care and their affiliates, Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, which includes owned as well as a number of regional hospitals and practices using their Pictorial Archiving and Communications System (PACS) system, MaineGeneral Health and Mercy Hospital. Once the pilot phase is completed later this year, HealthInfoNet will open participation to providers across the state. Read our press release announcing this last year as well as a recent article from the Information Technology Academy newsletter.
For more information, contact Todd Rogow at [email protected].
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HealthInfoNet Welcomes New Board Members and Thanks Outgoing
 Richard W. Freeman, MD, MPH, ScD, FACP is Senior Vice President and Chief Transformation Officer for Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems (EMHS). In this role, he is responsible for guiding transformation of EMHS from volume-based to value-based reimbursement and care delivery models, and for helping EMHS achieve the Triple Aim, reducing cost while improving care quality and access. Early in his career, Dr. Freeman served on the professional staff of Baltimore City Hospitals as a physician's assistant, and led the reform of the prison health care system for the Baltimore City Jail and the Maryland Division of Correction. He earned a master of public health and a doctorate in epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, and completed medical school at the University of Maryland and residency in general internal medicine at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. As full-time faculty of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, he was the founding director of the first year student preceptorship, Introduction to Medicine, and also served as vice president for medical affairs at Hopkins Bayview. He then was president of a publicly funded care management company, providing care coordination and medical management services to BlueCross BlueShield plans. After 9/11, he was invited to lead the CDC Specialty Center for Public Health Preparedness at New York University School of Medicine. Just prior to joining EMHS, Dr. Freeman served in executive leadership positions at two large, multi-specialty, medical group practices associated with health systems in Rochester, NY, and Grand Rapids, MI. Dr. Freeman and his wife, Nancee, live in Blue Hill.  Ann Sullivan is a retired business professional representing health care consumers in her role on the Board. Ann is also Chair of the HealthInfoNet Consumer Advisory Committee. Her self-described "consumer credentials" include having cared for her mother with Rheumatoid Arthritis and managing her own multitude of chronic conditions and the many providers involved. Ann received a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Sociology from Emmanuel College, did graduate work in Sociology at Northeastern and has a Master of Business Administration from Suffolk University. She has held positions in research, marketing, product development, communications, advertising, and strategic planning in the financial services industry and in non-profits. Prior to retirement, she was Endowment Director for the Senior Center at Lower Village, Kennebunk and before that served as the Campaign and Communications Director for the United Way of York County. She later volunteered for the United Way to help set up the statewide 2-1-1 phone service and website. In her retirement she has continued to help review and write grants for local organizations, including the United Way and Save our Water, and she has become an avid health researcher to educate herself, her family and her community about the management of chronic health conditions. Ann lives in Kennebunkport with her husband Harvey Flashen. HealthInfoNet would also like to thank the following outgoing board members for their many years of service. - Tim Agnew, Principal at Masthead Venture Partners, served on the Board between 2009-2012. Member of the Board Contract Review Committee and the Ad Hoc Governance Workgroup.
- Dan Coffey, CEO of Acadia Hospital, was a founding board member and served on the board since its inception in 2006. Was a member of the Executive Committee throughout his time on the Board serving as its Treasurer (2006-2008) and its Vice-Chairman (2009-2011).
- David Howes, President and CEO of Martin's Point Health Care, was a founding board member and served on the board since its inception in 2006. He held the following executive positions: Vice-Chair (2006-2008), Chair (2009-2010) and Past Chair (2011).
- James Leonard, Director of the Office of the State Coordinator for Health IT for the State of Maine, served on the Board between 2010-2012.
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HealthInfoNet
[email protected]
www.hinfonet.org
207-541-9250 or 866-592-4352 |
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Recent News Coverage
Healthcare Informatics, 2/19/2013
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Join HealthInfoNet in Celebrating Bangor Beacon
It doesn't seem possible, but the Bangor Beacon Community is wrapping up its three hard years of work. Please join us on Tuesday, March 12 at Spectacular Event Center in Bangor from 10 - 11 am to hear how Bangor Beacon partners have improved care for patients in the community, what's next, and stories and milestones from patients and providers. RSVP to
[email protected]
or (207) 973-5644
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Who's Connected
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Want to know what providers are using HealthInfoNet? We keep an updated list of participates on our website. The list is getting long!
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New Mental Health EHR Toolkit
As part of HealthInfoNet's work with mental health providers, we developed a toolkit to help these providers with EHR implementation and connection to the HIE. This toolkit is publicly available on our website.
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New User Features
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In case you missed it, we've added several new features to the health information exchange portal including a feedback button, link to PMP portal and notification management area. Read more in our recent IT Support Bulletin.
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