Total participating practices: 579

Total participating providers: 2,838

Total number of users: 8,459

Total number of patient consent forms signed: 496,608

Total number of patient referral packet CCD's electronically exchanged for care coordination from January-May 2013: 79,706

Total results available through HEALTHeLINK: More than 95 million

Total number of patient record look up queries via the Virtual Health Record (VHR) from January-May 2013: 212,802

Total number of practices that support electronic delivery of HEALTHeLINK results directly into their EMR: 218

Total number of providers that receive electronic delivery of results directly from HEALTHeLINK into their EMR: 1,341

Data Source

The following data sources are currently available through HEALTHeLINK. Those bolded are new since the last edition of The Link:

Advantage Telehealth (telemonitoring)

Beechwood Continuing Care

Briody Health Care Facility (ADTs)

Brothers of Mercy (ADTs)

Buffalo MRI (ADTs, Radiology)

Catholic Health System (ADTs, radiology, labs)

Catholic Health/McAuley Seton Home Care (telemonitoring)

Dent Neurologic Institute (ADTs, radiology, radiology images)

Diagnostic Imaging Associates (radiology, radiology images)

ECMC (ADTs, radiology, radiology images, labs, transcribed reports)

Genetic Diagnostic Laboratories (labs)

Great Lakes Imaging (ADTs, radiology, radiology images)

Jones Memorial Hospital (ADTs, radiology, transcribed reports)

Kaleida Health System (ADTs, radiology, labs, transcribed reports)

Kaleida Health's Visiting Nurses Association (telemonitoring)

Lake Erie Regional Health System of NY – Brooks Memorial  (ADTs radiology,   transcribed reports)

Lake Erie Regional Health System of NY – Lakeshore Hospital (ADTs, radiology, radiology images, labs, transcribed reports)

Mount St. Mary’s Hospital (ADTs, radiology, labs, transcribed reports)

Niagara Falls Memorial (ADTs, radiology, radiology images, labs, ER reports)

Quest Diagnostics (labs)

Roswell Park Cancer Institute (ADTs, radiology, radiology images, labs, transcribed reports, images)

RxHub (medication history)

Seton Imaging (ADTs, radiology, radiology images)

Southtowns Radiology (ADTs, radiology, radiology images)

Spectrum Radiology

Surescripts (medication history)

United Memorial Medical Center (ADTs, radiology, radiology images,  labs)

Upper Allegheny Health System (ADTs, radiology, labs & transcribed reports)

WCA of Jamestown (ADTs, radiology, radiology images, labs, transcribed reports)

Windsong Radiology Group

X-Cell Laboratories

For a complete listing of data sources and participating practices, click here »

Beacon Project Update

WNY Beacon has helped to strengthen HEALTHeLINK by expanding the number of new data sources contributing to the HIE. This has included the addition of three long term care facilities to date – Briody Health Care Facility, Beechwood Continuing Care, and Brothers of Mercy Nursing and Rehabilitation. WNY Beacon’s efforts were recently highlighted in an ONC issue brief titled “Health IT in Long-Term and Post-Acute Care. Click here to download.

Western New York Beacon Community was recently granted a six-month no cost extension by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) to continue analyzing data received from the implementation of registries, and both the telemonitoring and medication history pilots. All three Beacon interventions are still ongoing and final evaluations will be made available later this year. The grant, which officially ended March 31, will now end September 30, 2013.

NYeC Summit Series

Approximately 50 people attended the New York eHealth Collaborative’s (NYeC) Summit Series “Beyond EHRs: Information Exchange and Your Practice” held in Buffalo on May 2 to learn about the progress and current state of HIE both here in WNY and at the statewide level. Rachel Block, deputy commissioner for health information technology transformation at the New York State Department of Health and Paul Wilder, vice president of product management at NYeC started the morning session with a statewide look at HIE. Dan Porreca, HEALTHeLINK’s executive director followed with an update on HIE in Western New York, current usage statistics and what’s on tap moving forward. In addition, a panel discussion featuring Lynn Fyock from Southtowns Family Medicine; Diane Parrish from HEALTHeLINK; David Scamurra, MD, with Eastern Great Lakes Pathology and chair of HEALTHeLINK’s board of directors; Bonnie Sunday, MD, a primary care physician; and Vicki Temperato from WNY Urology Associates concluded the half-day event.

If you were unable to attend and interested in the content highlighted, the presentation slides can be downloaded here.

Great Lakes Medical Imaging & Seton Imaging join as data sources

Great Lakes Medical Imaging and Seton Imaging are the newest data sources to join HEALTHeLINK. With authorized patient consent, physicians now have access to radiology reports and diagnostic quality images from both organizations. In addition, both Great Lakes Medical Imaging and Seton Imaging are trusted locations for collecting patient consents. Formerly known as North Towns Imaging, Apex Imaging and Northtowns MRI, Great Lakes Medical Imaging has locations in Cambria, Cheektowaga, Orchard Park, Tonawanda, and Williamsville. Seton Imaging offers locations in Amherst, North Tonawanda and at Kenmore Mercy Hospital.

"It's Working." Ad Campaign launches

Have you seen or heard our brand new advertising campaign? Working with Buffalo advertising firm Crowley Webb, HEALTHeLINK launched a campaign at the end of April to increase the adoption and usage of the HIE among WNY medical professionals and to increase awareness of the brand among adults throughout the community.

The radio portion, which features a sound bite from New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Nirav Shah, is currently airing on WBEN, WGR, WYRK and WHTT. Brief TV spots are also running on WGRZ and WIVB. In addition, the campaign features outdoor billboards and online banner ads. A new landing page for HEALTHeLINK’s website was also created to target both physicians and patients. Click here to check it out.

HEALTHeLINK functionalities: Did you know?

Participants can query and review your consented patients’ medication fill history including drug, dose, form, strength, and pharmacy through the virtual health record. When logged in, this information can be found under the patient info tab. Medication history information, provided by Surescripts queries both a claims-based database that returns anything paid for through commercial insurance and a pharmacy-fill database that returns scripts filled regardless of payment from chain pharmacies such as CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, and Target. If you haven’t already, try this useful functionality during medication reconciliation to prevent adverse drug interaction and overdose.

If you are a current HEALTHeLINK user, you can now check on the HEALTHeLINK consent of a patient when logged into HEALTHeNET in addition to having the ability to change the consent if authorized by the patient. This functionality needs to first be initiated by HEALTHeLINK, so talk with your rep about adding this tool.

What health care providers are saying about HEALTHeLINK

“Having access to the information in HEALTHeLINK has helped our Emergency Room personnel to get a more complete picture of the patients they are treating, in a fraction of the time that it would have taken previously. There are many instances where providers have been able to access information that they otherwise would not have been made aware of. The HEALTHeLINK team has been very diligent in understanding our needs and quite helpful in the rollout of this important tool. HEALTHeLINK has become a trusted resource in the Kenmore Mercy Hospital Emergency Department and I would highly recommend it for all EDs.”

    - Heather Telford, Nurse Manager, Kenmore Mercy Hospital Emergency Dept.

Health Home Training Continues

HEALTHeLINK continues its work to achieve further interoperability and interconnectivity among Health Home participants throughout Western New York.  Health Homes of Upstate New York – Western was recently trained on how to leverage HEALTHeLINK’s technical capabilities in the coordination of patient care and bidirectional exchange of health information. In addition to Health Homes of Upstate New York, HEALTHeLINK also continues to work with Health Homes - Greater Buffalo United Accountable Healthcare Network, Health Home Partners of WNY and Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center Health Home.

HEALTHeLINK In the News

• Buffalo News - On the Record/May 3,2013
• Buffalo News - On the Record, June 5, 2013
• Business First - HEALTHeLINK names new slate of board members
• Business First - Hospitals working toward reducing readmission rates
• Lockport Metro Source - Lockport area physicians continue to join HEALTHeLINK
• Metro Source - Great Lakes Medical Imaging joing HEALTHeLINK
• WGRZ.com - Seton Imaging joins HEALTHeLINK