By Healthcare Facilities Today

Working with the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), 10 state health information exchange (HIE) programs have teamed to allow for the exchange of health information among providers caring for patients who are displaced from their homes due to wide-spread disaster such as hurricanes or tornados.

Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Michigan, Wisconsin and West Virginia have formed this partnership as part of an effort to help make sure their residents’ critical health information is available when they are unable to visit their regular doctors or hospitals, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). 

All of the state HIE programs participating in the initiative have established at least one operational interstate connection. The 10-state initiative is being made possible through information technology infrastructure provided through Direct, a tool developed by an ONC-led collaboration with broad health information technology industry participation, says the HHS. 

“Through disasters like Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy and large tornadoes in Alabama and Joplin, Mo., in 2011 and more recently in Moore, Okla., we have learned the importance of protecting patients’ health records through electronic tools like health information exchanges,” Farzad Mostashari, M.D., national coordinator for health IT, said in a press release. “Patients are better off when states and health information exchange organizations work together to ensure that health information can follow patients when they need it the most.”

A guidebook, published by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, can also help primary care clinicians connect their patients’ electronic health records to a local HIE hub and regional health information organizations. The guide, Regional Health e-Decisions: A Guide to Connect Health Information Exchange in Primary Care, is available at www.healthit.ahrq.gov/RegionalHealtheDecisionsGuide.pdf.

For more information on the initiative, visit www.hhs.gov.