Highlights
- HealthLINC began operations in October 2007
- Includes greater than150,000 patients in it community patient index
- HealthLINC is sending greater than 110,000 secure clinical results/month
- Physicians contributed significantly to the start up costs for HealthLINC
- HealthLINC is a collaborative community partner with HealthBridge
In 2003 only 0-3 percent of the medical practices used an EMR in Monroe and Orange Counties for their patients. By 2009, greater than 50% of the physician practices in Monroe and an amazing 76% of the practices in Orange have functional electronic medical records for their patients. This progress was directly facilitated by HealthLINC activities
HealthLINC (formerly Bloomington E-Health Collaborative) led a formal community selection process in 2006-7 that involved more than 65 participants. Ultimately, HealthBridge and Axolotl were selected as technology infrastructure partners. In October of 2007, HealthLINC become operational and has consistently increased the depth and breadth of its secure HIE network.
HealthLINC governs a regional HIE that provides secure, clinical messaging system that delivers greater than 110,000 medical results per month between the hospital, private practices and indigent care clinics. This system reduces redundant testing and “turns the paper off” resulting in cost savings that will translate into reduced health care costs. These systems also benefit the community by reducing the incidence of lost or misplaced test results and, therefore, ensure timely medical action is taken if needed.
HealthLINC is a true community collaboration that includes 85% of the community physicians and has benefited from funding directly from the physician community. Community partners are numerous and include Bloomington Hospital, Centerstone Research Institute, Internal Medicine Associates, Southern Indiana Radiological Associates, and Volunteers in Medicine of Monroe County.
Health Information Exchange creates the opportunity for improved care coordination. HealthLINC regularly analyzes statistics including total results/month per practice, results/month at the community level, and the number of practices with clinical messaging.
HealthLINC recently completed a successful community education event “Building Community Health Information Exchange: Partnering for Patients” that included 8 presentations, 80 participants, and has resulted in a number of recommendations for process improvements that can be accomplished using Clinical Messaging. Evaluations of this event and faculty averaged 4.5 out of 5.
HealthLINC has made a special effort to improve care coordination for underserved populations including the un-insured and patients with chronic mental illness. Our network includes the majority of these providers in a 4 county region with a goal of 100% inclusion of these fragile populations.
HealthLINC’s efforts have set the stage for care coordination improvements via current use of HIT such as Clinical Messaging and data connected EMR to provide service provider connectivity. HealthLINC has created a health service directory that includes 182 physicians and is growing on a monthly basis.
