Those of you
that have been in the HIE space for a while may remember the Upper Midwest HIE
Consortium, an alliance to exchange health information among multiple states
(Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and both North and South Dakota). While
a true “exchange” didn’t take hold, the policy work that was done as part of
the effort on Privacy/Security and Consent became the building blocks that many
of today’s HIE’s in those states (and others) were built upon.
As the
statewide HIE in North Dakota (what became the North Dakota Health Information
Network) was preparing to launch, many worked very hard to make sure that
exchange wouldn’t stop at the state borders, since the delivery of healthcare certainly
doesn’t stop at our borders. NDHIN met with South Dakota, Wyoming, and
Montana to pursue joint opportunities utilizing HITECH funding – calling themselves
the “Square, Flat State Workgroup.”
While these
groups don’t “exist” today, they set the tone for collaboration and the
exchange of healthcare information in our region – and today it’s starting to
thrive, which is why we launched the Koble Group – to further advance health
information technology usage by providers and to advance health information
exchange.
We became a
certified Health Information Organization (HIO) in Minnesota and are now
onboarding our first participants to our state-of-the-art HIE environment
provided by Orion Health. Minnesota has a market-based environment with
multiple HIE’s, which is certainly a different approach than its neighboring
states take. We offer more of a traditional, statewide HIE suite of
services and are very committed to advancing Care Coordination and Transition
of Care initiatives – and work with our fellow HIE’s to increase
interoperability across the state.
We have
continued to look for more opportunities to advance interoperability throughout
the U.S., as well, and are very pleased to announce that our new joint venture
(called Hielix/Koble Group LLC) has officially taken over the stewardship,
management and operations of the Iowa Health Information Network (IHIN). IHIN is a statewide HIE based in West Des
Moines, IA. We look forward to serving
the citizens of Iowa for many years to come, continuing the terrific work the
Iowa Department of Public Health and IHIN stakeholders started nearly a decade
ago.
Here
is the news release sent out by the Iowa Department of Public Health last
Friday, making it official:
IDPH
News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
March
31, 2017
Contact:
Polly Carver-Kimm
Iowa
Health Information Network Moves Out of IDPH
In
2015, the Iowa Legislature authorized the movement of the Iowa Health
Information Network (IHIN) into a nonprofit status, outside of state
government. Following a bidding process by the Iowa Department of Public Health
(IDPH), the Hielix/Koble Group (HKG) application was selected to take over
stewardship of the non-profit IHIN. HKG has more than a decade of hands-on
experience forming and operating HIEs in multiple states and officially began
stewardship of the IHIN today, March 31, 2017.
“Under
the new nonprofit organization structure, developed with guidance from
Hielix/Koble, the IHIN will continue to operate, as well as begin identifying
opportunities to modernize and improve services for the benefit of Iowans,”
said IDPH Director Gerd Clabaugh. “I am excited about the opportunities that
lie ahead for the IHIN and Iowans.
“We
are looking forward to seeing the IHIN achieve the next level,” said HKG
President Dale S. Emerson. “The IHIN reach will expand to include long-term
care, pharmacies, labs, home health, behavioral health, hospice, and other
providers in the Iowa healthcare ecosystem.” Currently, IHIN serves primarily
hospitals and physician clinics.
HKG
is in discussion with Nebraska and Missouri about providing connections across
state borders to better serve patients in Iowa’s border communities, such as
Sioux City, Council Bluffs, Keokuk, Centerville, Mason City, and Osage. A fully
functioning IHIN will be able to supply critical treatment information to the
care provider at the point of care and at the time of service to enhance the
patient’s treatment plan and improve patient outcomes.
For
more information about the IHIN, visit http://www.iowaehealth.org/provider/.
###
A video message from IDPH Director Gerd Clabaugh about the
movement of the IHIN out of IDPH is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEADk8yGVKE
