HealthInfoNet’s team of project managers and integration analysts have been hard at work over the last several months in continuing to make connections to healthcare locations serving diverse communities throughout the state. The Health Information Exchange (HIE) now connects more than 850 unaffiliated provider organizations statewide, encompassing approximately 98% of all Maine residents, in the value of improving the timeliness, safety, and quality of care delivered.

Noteworthy new participant connections include:

• Long-Term Care Facilities – In support of the Office of MaineCare Services’ Medicare Advantage Dual-Eligible Special Needs Plan (D-SNP) data-sharing requirements, HealthInfoNet is connecting to more than 50 long-term care facilities throughout the state as a means of addressing the need for greater care coordination among high-risk individuals. By January 1, 2022, all admission, discharge, and transfer (ADT) information from D-SNP-contracted long-term care facilities must be provided to HealthInfoNet. These facilities are largely part of the National Healthcare Associates, North Country Associates, Pinnacle Health and Rehabilitation, First Atlantic, and MaineHealth networks.
• Maine Department of Corrections – The State of Maine Department of Corrections is now connected as a view-only participant of the statewide HIE – and soon to be a data-sharing participant. This implementation of the Department includes each of its adult facilities (Bolduc Correctional Facility, Mountain View Correctional Facility, Maine Correctional Center, Maine State Prison, and Southern Maine Women’s Reentry Center) as well as its juvenile facility (Long Creek Youth Development Center). As a result of this connection, the HIE will not only help support greater quality of health services offered and provisioned by the Department’s clinical teams, but also help support coordination of care and benefits for persons transitioning in and out of incarceration.
• State Psychiatric Centers – Riverview Psychiatric Center and Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Center, the two State-operated psychiatric hospitals under the Department of Health and Human Services, are now connected as view-only participants of the statewide HIE. These centers provide treatment, education, and research for individuals with serious, persistent mental illnesses and co-occurring substance use disorders. Access to the HIE will provide these centers with additional insight into and information about their patients’ general medical information in an effort to facilitate informed decision-making about relevant care and treatment plans.
• eClinicalWorks Participants – HealthInfoNet is now able to accept Consolidated Clinical Document Architecture (CCDA) formatted data from provider organizations that use the eClinicalWorks (eCW) electronic medical record system at their healthcare locations. Recently, HealthInfoNet has onboarded the following eCW participants: Health Access Network, St. Croix Regional Family Center, Regional Medical Center at Lubec, Bucksport Regional Medical Center, and Wiscasset Family Health. This added functionality marks an important step for HealthInfoNet and its eCW participants who have previously been unable to share data with the HIE due to the complexities related to sharing/accepting CCDA-formatted data sources. CCDA information collected from participants can now be found in the “CCDA Documents” folder within patients’ respective document libraries in the HIE Clinical Portal.

For more information about any of our recent HIE connections, please reach out to our Clinical Education team (clienteducation@hinfonet.org). For non-HIE participating provider organizations interested in getting connected, please complete our online onboarding inquiry form to provide us with additional information about your organization to inform eligibility and next steps: https://hinfonet.org/what-we-do/become-a-participant/.