With its regional health improvement strategy in place HEALTHeLINK, the health information exchange (HIE) for Western New York, is collaborating with community partners to make data-informed decisions to help drive care and further address the health inequities in the local community. This expanded strategic focus for the organization is highlighted in the HEALTHeLINK 2023 Report to the Community.
“Building on the value we provide to the local health care community, we continue to add to our offerings with an expanded data set to help drive efficiencies and improve overall quality of care and health in our community,” said Dan Porreca, president and CEO, HEALTHeLINK. “We have expanded our focus on regional health improvement efforts, knowing we can leverage the valuable and robust clinical data available to help the community, not just providers, identify and understand chronic health issues, preventative care options, and address health-related social needs.”
A few of the major highlights from HEALTHeLINK’S 2023 Report to the Community include:
- The launch of the HEALTHeWNY Dashboard, a comprehensive, publicly accessible platform designed to provide real-time data and insights into the health status of the WNY community. As an interactive tool, the dashboard allows users to explore data at a county and zip code level, providing a detailed picture of health.
- Partnering with select Federally Qualified Health Centers, HEALTHeQUALITY, a solution that brings together clinical and health-related social needs data to identify gaps in care was utilized to monitor patients’ chronic disease management measures and cancer screenings, which resulted in increases in breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screening rates, as well as improved hypertension and diabetes management among the participating patients.
- HEALTHeLINK was awarded $1 million cooperative agreement over the next two years from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT to aggregate advance care planning documents from across the community and make electronically available to treating providers who need to know a patient’s wishes at the point of care.
- More than 1.3 million clinical results, such as lab tests and radiology reports and images were delivered monthly. This marks an 18% increase over 2022.
- Patient record lookup which enables participating HEALTHeLINK providers to instantly access a consented patient’s clinical record and obtain information such as test results, medication history, etc. totaled more than 10.7 million.
- Finally, the HEALTHeLINK team worked on a total of 69 different projects in 2023 focused on improving the HIE foundation and enhancing the services offered to its participants.
HEALTHeLINK also continues to collaborate with similar organizations across the state and country, including the New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC) and the other HIEs across the state that make up the Statewide Health Information Network for New York (SHIN-NY) and nationally with Civitas Networks for Health, to leverage and share best practices for improved quality of care.
To view the 2023 HEALTHeLINK Report to the Community, please visit https://wnyhealthelink.com/files/AnnualReport/2023/#/introduction-1.
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About HEALTHeLINK
HEALTHeLINK serves as a resource for broad health system transformation through secure data-informed decision making for individual patient care and to support community investments with a purpose of improving health, health care, and collaboration with local health care providers and those who are connected via the Statewide Health Information Network for New York (SHIN-NY) to improve health outcomes and health care delivery, control costs, increase access to care, and improve health equity in Western New York. HEALTHeLINK is also a founding member of Civitas Networks for Health, a national collaborative working to use health information exchange to improve health. Providers and patients can visit wnyhealthelink.com or @HEALTHeLINK on Facebook, X, or LinkedIn for more information.