Here's What's New at HealthInfoNet...
Each quarter, we round up everything that’s been happening at HealthInfoNet with an eye on what’s most relevant and useful for our participants’ end-user communities. Here’s a preview of our Summer 2022 announcements…
- Survey Findings Preview & Next Steps – The last time you read our newsletter, we were just releasing our “Service Utilization & Workflow Survey.” Check out a few of the preliminary findings from the survey and learn more about what we plan to do with the information in the next few months!
- Meet Samantha Hamlin from Lovejoy Health Center – As part of our survey, we chose a winner of our $100 Visa gift card raffle. Here’s a brief profile of our winner, Samantha Hamlin, NCMA, Care Manager at Lovejoy Health Center (HealthReach Community Health Centers)!
- New Educational Resources Now Available – We’ve gone back into the user-feedback archives to build a few new educational resources that can be used to inform best practices of our tools and services. Our new Training Checklists, Tips & Tricks, and Communication Package Refresher materials may be just what you’ve been waiting for – so go take a look!
- Active Strategic Efforts to Know About – Collecting Advanced Care Planning documentation, connecting the state’s five Area Agencies on Aging organizations, and bringing in more federal and out-of-state patient health information are just a few of our current strategic efforts intended to assist our participants with expanded care management use cases.
- New Data Connections – We’re constantly making new connections to healthcare locations across the state in the value of patient care and population health. Check out who’s been recently connected and how you may be able to create tighter integrations with these providers through our growing network.
Survey Findings Preview & Next Steps
A big thank you to all of our end users who took time out of their busy schedules to complete our Service Utilization & Workflow Survey, which closed on June 17, 2022. The purpose of this survey was to gain an updated understanding of how our participants are leveraging our health information services within their internal workflows as well as to surface areas for improvement in future service growth efforts.
A preview of just some of the survey findings include:
- Our Clinical Portal electronic health record system is by far the most utilized service, with 95% of all respondents actively using the application.
- Just more than half (53%) of all respondents are logging into our services on a daily basis to support their internal workflows - and the majority (81%) are using them at least once per week.
- There are several reasons why respondents use our services, but, most commonly, they are looking for information not available in their internal electronic health record (EHR) system (69%), such as when a patient indicates that important information about their health care may be available from an external organization (46%).
- The top value propositions reported by respondents about the importance of our services include that they help (a) reduce the amount of time spent gathering information from patients’ care teams (81% agreed) and (b) coordinate care across diverse healthcare settings (78% agreed).
- A majority of respondents noted that their usage of our services would improve if (a) more healthcare locations within Maine were connected (88% agreed) and (b) they could access their patients’ information from facilities outside of Maine (79% agreed).
The survey was a great success, and we are learning lots from it as we dig into the details. At this time, our Clinical Education and Client Engagement teams are reviewing additional qualitative responses, identifying key survey themes, and building a suite of recommended actions to improve our end users’ service experiences. Stay tuned for more to come in the next few months!
Meet Samantha Hamlin, NCMA, Care Manager
Lovejoy Health Center, HealthReach Community Health Centers
As part of our Service Utilization & Workflow Survey, we chose a winner of our $100 Visa gift card raffle. Learn more about our winner, Samantha Hamlin, NCMA, Care Manager at Lovejoy Health Center (HealthReach Community Health Centers)!
Which of HealthInfoNet’s services are most important to you?
Samantha utilizes HealthInfoNet’s Clinical Portal electronic health record system and its analytics and reporting system as part of their daily care management workflow.
How does the information in HealthInfoNet’s services help improve your patient care workflows?
HealthInfoNet’s health information services provide information that is not readily available or accessible in the EHR system used by Samantha’s organization. This is often the case when patients are seen at external organizations. Samantha uses the information in HealthInfoNet’s services to have a conversation with their patients to help inform the care they receive and their decision making.
What are you most excited to see HealthInfoNet consider in upcoming service offerings?
Samantha looks forward to HealthInfoNet expanding its reach to non-Maine based healthcare locations that their patients visit to receive services. By having this additional information on their patients, they can help improve the continuity of patient care – especially for their patients who travel elsewhere during the winter months but still require their healthcare story to be known when they return home.
The team at HealthInfoNet would like to congratulate Samantha on winning the $100 Visa gift card raffle as well as thank everyone else who contributed responses. Be on the lookout for future survey opportunities for your chance to win and be highlighted!
New Educational Resources Now Available
Our Clinical Education team is constantly working with our clients and their end users to support knowledge transfer and cross-training of our data, applications, and their use cases. Check out some of our latest educational resources to stay in the know!
Active Strategic Efforts to Know About
We’re constantly looking for new ways to help our healthcare communities create lasting system-wide improvements in the value and quality of patient care and population health. One way that we are hoping to share more information on the projects, programs, and partnerships that we are spearheading is by highlighting key activities for our stakeholders to review and respond to on a timely basis.
As users of our services, you may find it useful to know that we are actively pursuing:
eHealth Exchange Provider Onboarding Prioritization
The purpose of this effort is to continue to expand the national connections established through HealthInfoNet’s integration with the eHealth Exchange network by prioritizing additional eHealth-participating healthcare providers to incrementally onboard in alignment with statewide interests.
Area Agency on Aging Network Participation
The purpose of this effort is to engage Maine’s Area Agency on Aging (AAA) organizations and to incentivize their participation in the statewide HIE network as a means of enhancing their healthcare partnerships and improving the efficiency and effectiveness of their cross-sector services.
Advanced Care Planning Documentation
The purpose of this effort is to increase awareness on the value of leveraging Maine’s statewide HIE infrastructure to support the collection, storage, and review of patients’ Advanced Care Planning (ACP) information. ACP information comprises the decisions that patients and their caregivers may need to make at the end of life or in the event of an emergency.
New Connection Alerts
We’re always looking to connect new healthcare locations throughout the state (and beyond) to help our participant network gain as much information as possible about their patients’ healthcare activities. Keep an eye on our new participant connections to determine how to use our health information services for expanded data use cases.
Data Sharing: Pines Health Services
Pines Health Services is now sharing ADT, Laboratory Results, and Vitals information. Pines is a non-profit, community-based physician practice affiliated with Cary Medical Center that delivers primary, specialty, dental, and behavioral healthcare services to residents of Aroostook County.
Viewing: Penobscot Nation Health Department
Penobscot Nation Health Department is now a viewing participant (i.e., non-data sharing participant). Penobscot Nation Health Department provides readily available, comprehensive, quality care to members of the Penobscot community, the Penobscot Nation, and other eligible persons.
For questions about our new connections or to discuss additional connection opportunities within your organization, please contact our Client Engagement team.
HealthInfoNet Academy
Visit our online learning platform, HealthInfoNet Academy, to continue learning how to most effectively and efficiently leverage the HIE’s services within existing clinical workflows.
Clinical Education
When online resources just aren’t enough, our team of educators are there to help. When questions arise, reach out to receive 1v1 personal support at your convenience.
