Axolotl and Rochester RHIO: 50 New York area eldercare agencies join HIE

Mar 2 2010

Axolotl Corp., the nationwide leader in health information exchange (HIE) solutions and services and Rochester RHIO, the regional health information organization connecting medical providers across nine counties in New York today announced that fifty area eldercare agencies are joining the health information exchange. For the first time anywhere, health care providers are now able to view medical and social supports that human service agencies provide senior patients, alongside their clinical information.

“Often seniors’ physicians are unaware of the services they use, or the medications and treatments they receive from elder care agencies”

Powered by Axolotl’s Elysium® Exchange, Rochester RHIO is a secure HIE available to authorized providers to exchange and view essential patient information such as lab reports, test results, medication history, insurance information, radiology images and reports, hospital discharge summaries, and now elder services data.

Nearly 25,000 seniors in the Greater Rochester area rely on care management programs and/or human services organizations for living assistance, home health support, nutrition and more. The fifty area eldercare agencies are all connected to PeerPlace, a national human services software company which provides tools to track patient health status and services, and to better coordinate care. Now, the doctors who treat senior patients will benefit from having the same information.

In partnership with Axolotl, PeerPlace, the Monroe County Office for the Aging, and Rochester RHIO developed a community care summary that will be available to authorized users of the health information exchange. Axolotl’s Elysium Open Access, a service-oriented architecture (SOA) platform, easily integrates information from PeerPlace into reports that are made available to the senior’s medical team or emergency physicians. As with all Rochester RHIO access, patients must first sign a consent form for their information to be accessed via the electronic health information exchange.

The community care summary is especially valuable as a patient transitions from the hospital to home, or between a rehabilitation facility and nursing home. It indicates the patient’s home support status, insurance information, psychological/social issues, emergency contacts, services they currently receive such as meal supplements or equipment deliveries, medication monitoring information, and more.

Corinda Crossdale, director of the Monroe County Office for the Aging, said that health and human service organizations play a major role in elder care. “Often seniors’ physicians are unaware of the services they use, or the medications and treatments they receive from elder care agencies,” Crossdale said. “Connecting PeerPlace with Rochester RHIO will provide a more complete record of senior health to the doctors who need it, and help to ease transitions of care.”

Benefits to seniors and the local health system include:

• Better patient care transitions through more informed discharge planning - enabling collaboration for community support needs for safe patient discharges.

• More informed office visits because physicians are able to see a full picture of health status, home life, and services their senior patients use.

• Information is easily shared without patients needing to repeatedly provide documentation or verbal reports.

• Patient reported information is included, allowing for more engagement by patients in their health care.

Rochester RHIO’s Executive Director, Ted Kremer said that connecting elder care agencies to the HIE supports the goal of a community continuum of care. “Receiving services outside of traditional hospital or office settings is an integral part of senior health, and Rochester RHIO is committed to improving patient care by providing access to all relevant patient information,” Kremer said. “Connecting nearly all of the Monroe County services agencies for the aging allows providers to give efficient, informed elder care and ease transitions of care.”

SOURCE Rochester RHIO