Fallon Clinic and HealthAlliance Hospital Launch “Safe Health” to Enhance Patient Safety
Highly secure, consent-driven health information exchange program allows for real-time exchange of patient healthcare information.
Worcester, MA, July 15, 2009 — Fallon Clinic, a large, multi-specialty medical group practice in Central Massachusetts, in conjunction with HealthAlliance Hospital, a member of the UMass Memorial Health Care system, recently launched SAFE Health (Secure Architecture For Exchanging Health Information, www.SAFEHealth.org), a regional health information exchange program. This program allows for the secure sharing of patient healthcare records, with patient consent, between treating physicians in order to enhance patient safety, maximize the quality of care and improve the efficiency of healthcare.
Originally founded by Fallon Clinic in partnership with Fallon Community Health Plan and UMass Memorial Health Care system, and supported by a $1.5Million Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) grant, SAFE Health is now active between HealthAlliance Hospital’s Leominster Campus Emergency Department and Fallon Clinic.
Fallon Clinic and HealthAlliance have emphasized improvements in patient safety through the use of information systems and technology. This is part of their ongoing efforts to distinguish themselves in providing the safest environment for patient care by improving communication of important health information, and to make this information immediately available to caregivers. The importance of this is demonstrated by national data, which shows that inadequate communication between hospitals and physician offices throughout the country causes approximately two million potentially adverse medical events each year. Health Information Exchanges like SAFE Health are designed to address these problems, which can save lives and sharply reduce healthcare costs.
SAFE Health uses advanced technology to securely and efficiently connect Electronic Health Records (EHRs) from multiple healthcare organizations. Its novel design focuses on usability by physicians, clinical staff, and patients in real-world healthcare settings. The process to obtain patient consent is highly efficient and requires no modification to physician EHRs. Similarly, SAFE Health’s ability to load clinical information from one treating physician’s EHR directly into another treating physician’s EHR makes it easy for physicians to access this information in the normal course of care.
“It ensures that the treating physician needs to look no further than their own EHR to access their patient’s updated medical history, advance directive status, medications, allergies, immunization status and recent test results,” states Larry Garber, MD, Medical Director for Informatics at Fallon Clinic. “Sharing necessary medical information about our patients to other treating physicians is another step in the development of Fallon Clinic’s state-of-the-art Electronic Health Record, and we believe it can have life-saving effects. With the right information in the right place at the right time, physicians can make the right decisions.”
“In an emergency setting, it’s critically important for treating physicians to know detailed information about a patient’s medical history in a timely manner,” says Val Slayton, MD, MPP, MBA, Chief Medical Officer, HealthAlliance Hospital. “SAFE Health now allows HealthAlliance Hospital to access this information for Fallon Clinic patients who have provided consent, which will go a long way in reducing medical errors and enhancing our patients’ care.”
While the first phase of SAFE Health is occurring at HealthAlliance Hospital, other providers in Central Massachusetts are expected to be added to the network over the next few years. “Since the software was developed internally at Fallon Clinic, it will cost relatively little to add other physicians and hospitals to the SAFE Health system,” says Dr. Garber. “While other Health Information Exchanges are having trouble paying for expensive vendor-purchased software, we’ve dramatically lowered the cost going forward so that this is a highly sustainable model.”
Fallon Clinic, a non-profit organization, is a large, multi-specialty group practice in Central Massachusetts. Fallon Clinic physicians and healthcare professionals offer the region’s most comprehensive array of primary care and specialty services, supported with cutting-edge technologies and service-oriented processes. Founded in 1929 by a team of physicians from the Mayo Clinic led by Dr. John Fallon, Fallon Clinic continues to grow and thrive. Based in Worcester, Fallon Clinic has over 1,700 employees and approximately 250 physicians who see patients in more than 20 locations, including the Worcester Medical Center. Fallon Clinic accepts a broad range of insurance coverage, including plans from all major Massachusetts’ payers. More information about Fallon Clinic can be found by visiting www.fallonclinic.org.
HealthAlliance Hospital is a not-for-profit, full service, acute care hospital that serves the communities of North Central Massachusetts. As a member of UMass Memorial Health Care, HealthAlliance Hospital offers direct access to the advanced medical technology and specialty services that are part of the region’s academic medical center. The HealthAlliance system includes a hospital with services on two campuses in Leominster and Fitchburg, a regional cancer center, a home health and hospice agency, outpatient physical therapy centers, and several physician practices. For more information about HealthAlliance Hospital, visit www.healthalliance.com.