ICA selected by Central Illinois HIE as vendor of choice

Apr 21 2011

Informatics Corporation of America (ICA, www.icainformatics.com) announced today that it has been selected by the Central Illinois Health Information Exchange (CIHIE), www.qualityquest.org, as its health information exchange vendor of choice and has begun contract negotiations to furnish the technology and infrastructure for a regional HIE that will serve 20 counties in the Peoria, Bloomington, Champaign, and Decatur areas of Illinois. CIHIE currently covers a population of approximately 1.3 million people and includes 27 hospitals, 20 health departments, 2,800 physicians, 280 pharmacies, 12 labs and imaging centers and numerous ancillary healthcare providers such as rehabilitation centers, behavioral healthcare, long-term facilities and nursing homes.

“Leveraging the CareAlign™ solution infrastructure across a broad geographic area will enable health care providers to deliver care more efficiently while improving quality. The creation of CIHIE presents unique opportunities to the caregivers throughout central Illinois to achieve the benefits of CareAlign™ in a more efficient manner.”

Gail Amundson, MD, president and CEO of Quality Quest for Health of Illinois, CIHIE's parent organization, said, "The CareAlign™ technology enables CIHIE to accomplish its key goals of improving quality of care while protecting privacy and sharing costs among all stakeholders, minimizing barriers to provider participation, and extending health information exchange into this region of Illinois. The ICA solution easily scales to large populations and provides instant access to a patient's medical history, enabling physicians to make better treatment decisions while avoiding costly and unnecessary duplicate tests, adverse drug reactions, and a host of other issues." Dr. Amundson added, "Leveraging the CareAlign™ solution infrastructure across a broad geographic area will enable health care providers to deliver care more efficiently while improving quality. The creation of CIHIE presents unique opportunities to the caregivers throughout central Illinois to achieve the benefits of CareAlign™ in a more efficient manner."

Gary Zegiestowsky, CEO of ICA, further explained, "Having all communities in this mixed urban and rural area on one platform is vital to establishing a sustainable HIE because virtually all of healthcare is accessed locally. The model also allows local flexibility and delivers significant financial benefits, with cross-community infrastructure cost savings on an ongoing basis for both license and maintenance due to the economies of scale gained by using a common software platform."

The current Charter Members of CIHIE are Advocate BroMenn Medical Center in Normal, Decatur Memorial Hospital, Easter Seals, the Human Service Center - a subsidiary of Fayette Companies, Methodist Medical Center of Illinois, Proctor Hospital, OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, St. Mary's Hospital in Streator, St. Mary's Hospital in Decatur, and University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria.