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ND Health Information Update

Posted 11/15/17 (Wed)

ND Health Information Network (NDHIN) Update: Expanding the Secure Exchange of Health Information

The North Dakota Health Information Technology Advisory Committee (HITAC), a public-private partnership of healthcare stakeholders, in collaboration with the North Dakota Information Technology Division, is charged with expanding the secure exchange of health information in the State of North Dakota. To meet this charge, the HITAC has established the North Dakota Health Information Network (NDHIN). The NDHIN connects providers, through a secure online network, to share electronic health records. The goal of the NDHIN is to connect to a national network to accommodate patients everywhere, regardless of their home state, with a goal of improving healthcare.

Current functionality of the NDHIN includes Direct Secure Messaging email, known as Communicate, and query-based services with health information displayed in the NDHIN Clinical Portal. A provider can search for additional patient data in the clinical portal to augment existing patient health information they have, to assist in providing quality healthcare. Patient information available through the clinical portal includes: patient demographics, encounter history, allergies, diagnosis, lab results, procedures, imaging studies with links to the actual image, and other clinical documents.

We have applied for additional funding to continue to build out the NDHIN infrastructure and are awaiting approval from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The plan includes the following:

• Upgrading the current NDHIN infrastructure to the Amadeus platform. This upgrade will allow for better data management, data analytics and population health reporting.
• Continuing connecting hospitals, clinics and physician providers to the NDHIN platform. This will include bringing in additional information that we may not currently have from some providers such as medical documents, images, EKG’s and other notes that are important to other providers. In addition, the NDHIN plans to expand connections to other provider groups such as dental, optometric, chiropractic, home health, long term care, public health units, behavioral health providers etc.
• Work with a vendor to collect and report medication data in the clinical portal. This information will help providers complete drug reconciliations and compliance.
• The NDHIN is currently connected to a few other statewide health information exchanges (HIE), allowing providers to query providers in other states. The plan includes connecting the NDHIN to more state’s HIE’s plus connecting to Federal partners like the Veteran’s Administration, Indian Health Services and the Department of Defense.
• Continue to connect providers electronically to registries, such as the immunization registry and look to expand into other registries such as the cancer registry. Utilizing these connections, called interfaces, allows the systems to talk with each other and automate current data reporting requirements. This reduces or eliminates the need for providers or staff to report manually. This frees up time which can be spent with patient care and allows for quicker information retrieval from the registries for patient care.
• The NDHIN continues to work with providers and our vendor to identify and build out other core functionality to help reduce administrative processes in the sharing of information. These processes assist by making information available thru patient record and available in the clinical portal more efficient and faster. For example, we are currently working with a provider on a process to order labs and receive results electronically that are currently being done by mail and fax.
• Complete and rollout the advance directive repository.

To assist with this work, the plan includes having the NDHIN contract with additional vendors. One contract will be with an entity to provide education and technical support to providers. The second contract will be with a vendor to provide subject matter experts to assist in bringing the above items to production quickly and efficiently utilizing the latest technology standards and processes.

Additional information about the NDHIN and to register for training sessions can be obtained at http://www.ndhin.org.