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. 2014 Oct 27;2(3):1091.
eCollection 2014.

Creating a connected community: lessons learned from the Western new york beacon community

Nancy Maloney  1 , Arvela R Heider  1 , Amy Rockwood  1 , Ranjit Singh  2
Affiliations

Creating a connected community: lessons learned from the Western new york beacon community

Nancy Maloney et al. EGEMS (Wash DC). .

Abstract

Introduction: Secure exchange of clinical data among providers has the potential to improve quality, safety, efficiency, and reduce duplication. Many communities are experiencing challenges in building effective health information exchanges (HIEs). Previous studies have focused on financial and technical issues regarding HIE development. This paper describes the Western New York (WNY) HIE growth and lessons learned about accelerating progress to become a highly connected community.

Methods: HEALTHeLINK, with funding from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) under the Beacon Community Program, expanded HIE usage in eight counties. The communitywide transformation process used three main drivers: (1) a communitywide Electronic Health Record (EHR) adoption program; (2) clinical transformation partners; and (3) HIE outreach and infrastructure development.

Results: ONC Beacon Community funding allowed WNY to achieve a new level in the use of interoperable HIE. Electronic delivery of results into the EHR expanded from 23 practices in 2010 to 222 practices in 2013, a tenfold increase. There were more than 12.5 million results delivered electronically (HL7 messages) to 222 practices' EHRs via the HIE in 2013. Use of a secure portal and Virtual Health Record (VHR) to access reports (those not delivered directly to the EHR) also increased significantly, from 13,344 report views in 2010 to over 600,000 in 2013.

Discussion and conclusion: The WNY Beacon successfully expanded the sharing of clinical information among different sources of data and providers, creating a highly connected community to improve the quality and continuity of care. Technical, organizational, and community lessons described in this paper should prove beneficial to others as they pursue efforts to create connected communities.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Connected Community: Transformation Process
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Expansion of Data Sources, by number of facilities, April 2010 to September 2013 Notes: *Blue bars indicate the number of data sources in each category before the Beacon project, in April 2010. **Green bars indicate additional data sources connected during the course of the Beacon project, by September 2013. The total height of each bar shows the total number of data sources in place as of September 2013.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Expansion of Data Feeds, April 2010 to September 2013 Notes: ADTS=Admission, Discharge, and Transfer notifications; ER = Emergency Room. *Blue bars indicate the number of data feeds of each type before the Beacon project, in April 2010. **Green bars indicate additional feeds created during the course of the Beacon project, by September 2013. The total height of each bar shows the total number of data feeds in place as of September 2013.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
WNY Providers with HIE Results Delivery, 2009–2013
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
WNY HIE Patient Consents
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
Patient Virtual Health Record Annual Lookup Totals, 2009–2013
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