Health Information Exchanges (HIE) provide a means for HIPAA secure electronic communications between healthcare providers and is a key element in improving patient health and reducing costs. HIEs were the center of a statewide discussion when healthcare information technology (HIT) advocates converged at the Ohio Statehouse on Wednesday, February 11th.
The Statehouse Atrium was filled to capacity with health advocates from around the state for the 8th Annual Ohio Healthcare Information Technology Day (OHIT Day 2015) on Wednesday, February 11th, 2015. The daylong event was sponsored by the Central and Southern Ohio HIMSS Chapter (CSOHIMSS), csohio.himsschapter.org, Northern Ohio HIMSS Chapter (NOHIMSS), northernohio.himsschapter.org, Ohio Health Information Management Association (OHIMA), www.ohima.org and the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), www.cio-chime.org. These organizations represent more than 7,000 individuals dedicated to the utilization of healthcare information technology to improve the health and lower costs for all Ohioans.
The HIMSS Innovation Center in the Global Center for Health Innovation in Cleveland, Ohio also participated in OHIT Day 2015 for a second year. The Statehouse and the HIMSS Innovation Center connected via video streaming for the entire day using Everest/LifeSize innovative conferencing services. The speakers and CIO/CMIO panel streamed from the Statehouse to the Innovation Center while Armond Budish, Cuyahoga County Executive and past Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives streamed from the Innovation Center to the Statehouse. The Global Center is a $465 million showcase of medical, surgical and hospital services created as a part of the new Cleveland Convention Center. http://www.himssinnovationcenter.org
“Legislators should understand the importance of exchanging health information between healthcare organizations to improve patient healthcare. They also should understand the past and future investments made by the Federal and State governments in our Ohio HIEs to perform this function,” said Rick Moore, chair of the Joint OHIT Day 2015 Committee. Mr. Moore continued, “It was the goal of this event to educate the Ohio legislature on the challenges and policy concerns related to HIEs so we can capitalize on our investment in time and treasure to serve all Ohioans.”
David Kissinger, President, CSOHIMSS, had this to say, “Several initiatives by the Office of the National Coordinator provided grant funding that created the technical infrastructure and acquisition of electronic medical records providing the foundation to electronically share patient records across the state in a secure manner.” President Kissinger continued, “Now the healthcare community across the care continuum must embrace and utilize the technology provided by these grants to improve the safety, quality, availability and efficiency of health care for Ohioans. The goal of this gathering of healthcare technology specialists was to advocate for mechanisms, ranging from education to regulations, intended to engage healthcare providers, insurance payers and patients.”
Speakers included Representative Ryan Smith R-93 (Chairman of the Oho House Finance Committee), Rex Plouck (Governor’s Office of Health Transformation), Craig Brammer (CEO of HealthBridge), Dan Paoletti (CEO of the Ohio Health Information Partnership/CliniSync) and a CIO/CMIO panel comprised of Dr. Robert White (ACMIO of Cleveland Clinic), Alex Rodriguez (CIO of St. Elizabeth Medical Center) and Gary Ginter (CIO of Premier Health Systems).
As part of the event the following awards were presented by CSOHIMSS: House Legislator of the Year – Representative Ryan Smith, CIO of the Year – Gary Ginter, and CMIO of the Year – Robert White
This event is funded through the generous donations provided by the following sponsors: Alego Health, EHR Integration, Everest Communications, Sagacious Consultants, CHIME, CliniSync, OHIMA, Caradigm, Case Western Reserve, eHealth Ohio, HealthBridge, Logicalis, OSU Fisher School of Business, Teradata and Vocera