Maine’s HealthInfoNet Selects Orion Health as Primary Vendor for Health Information Exchange Deployment
Santa Monica, California, August 31, 2010 — Maine’s HealthInfoNet has selected Orion Health as the primary technology provider for their statewide health information exchange (HIE). The HIE currently involves six healthcare organizations and many of their affiliated hospitals and physician practices that annually care for more than half of the residents of Maine. Orion Health participated in the pilot phase of the implementation as a sub-contractor and after a complete re-evaluation of all vendors Orion Health was awarded a contract directly with HealthInfoNet as their primary vendor for Maine’s statewide HIE deployment.
HealthInfoNet Executive Director Dev Culver says the group went through an exhaustive evaluation process after commencing the pilot and critically reviewed the performance of existing and new HIE vendors. “Orion Health proved its ability to deliver consistently during the pilot phase. Their track record of success in large health information exchanges in other countries and valuable contributions during the planning and testing process demonstrated they were the right choice to lead a successful full deployment,” Mr. Culver concludes.
The State of Maine has received $6.6 million from the federal government for exchanging health information across health care systems, within and between states, with $4.2 million going to HealthInfoNet over a four-year period. HealthInfoNet’s secure clinical database currently contains the medical information of approximately 60 percent of Maine’s 1.3 million citizens. Currently, caregivers with access to the secure HIE network, have 24-hour access to clinical information on 750,000 patients, including drug allergies, prescriptions, medical conditions, and lab and test results. By 2015, HealthInfoNet plans to include all of the state’s hospitals and 80 percent of Maine’s physician practices in the project.
Before the development of the HealthInfoNet HIE, most patient-specific clinical information in Maine was stored in paper-based medical records or non-connected provider-specific electronic systems. These records were difficult for caregivers to access and share across unaligned organizations, particularly when needed for emergency situations. Paper records also made it difficult to monitor and respond rapidly to public health events to protect the population from emerging public threats. As more caregivers adopt electronic medical records and the HealthInfoNet HIE expands, these challenges will be greatly diminished.
Paul Viskovich, Orion Health President of North America says HealthInfoNet’s decision validates Orion Health’s leadership in implementing successful large-scale health exchange projects. “Our experience in implementing state, province or territory wide implementations includes sizeable projects such as New South Wales in Australia and many of the Canadian provinces as well as IB Salut in Spain. Maine’s HealthInfoNet is a model of effective health information exchange in the US. We’re honored to be chosen to provide the infrastructure for such a groundbreaking project,” Mr. Viskovich says.
Orion Health™ is a leading Health Information Exchange (HIE) solution provider with expertise in clinical workflow and integration technology for the healthcare sector. Orion Health’s easy-to-use solutions and applications improve patient care and clinical decision making by enabling the exchange of healthcare information among disparate systems and providing integrated health data in a single, unified view. By extending existing healthcare information systems, the Orion Health Rhapsody® Integration Engine, Concerto® Physician Portal, and workflow solutions provide healthcare workers with easy access to patient data and trends, and reduce errors and omissions by streamlining information transfer.
Worldwide, Orion Health has deployed health information communities involving over 35 million patients with hundreds of thousands of active clinical users including Maine’s HealthInfoNet, Alberta Health Services and Spain’s IB Salut. Orion Health’s partners include leading health system integrators and IT vendors such as Accenture, Allscripts, IBM, Oracle, Philips and others. Orion Health has more than 1,000 clients around the world, including Lahey Clinic, UCLA Medical Center, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Spain’s IB Salut, South Eastern Norwegian Regional Health Authority, New Zealand Ministry of Health. Orion Health’s Concerto Portal is a preferred Canada Health Infoway Solution. More information can be found at http://www.orionhealth.com.