San Joaquin County HIE Joins Inland Empire HIE; Expanded HIE Will Offer California Providers Single-point Access to Patient Data for 5M Residents via Orion Health HIE

NEW ORLEANS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Orion Health, the leader in eHealth technology, and Inland Empire Health Information Exchange (IEHIE), a self-funded collaborative of Riverside and San Bernardino County hospitals, medical centers, physician practices, health plans, public health organizations and other healthcare providers, today announced that San Joaquin County HIE (SJCHIE) has joined IEHIE. The expanded HIE will bring clinical information exchange technology and services of Orion Health HIE to healthcare providers serving 696,000 San Joaquin residents. IEHIE, which already offers Orion Health HIE to providers in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, will fully manage the technology, governance and legal infrastructure for SJCHIE, a business model that enables fast time to market for early stage HIEs and quick roll out of clinical services to regional clinicians and patients. The IEHIE/SJCHIE partnership and expansion of Orion Health HIE will give clinicians in more than 48 central and southern California organizations single-point access to patient data for 5M area residents.

“The addition of San Joaquin County HIE to our participating members is a testament to the success of our collaborative, completely self-funded operational model and will ensure that the critical services we provide to clinicians will continue to benefit an even larger number of patients throughout central and southern California.”

“IEHIE has established itself as one of the country’s largest, most successful HIEs by driving care improvement programs that are supported by a sustainable health information exchange business model,” said Dr. Richard Swafford, executive director, IEHIE. “The addition of San Joaquin County HIE to our participating members is a testament to the success of our collaborative, completely self-funded operational model and will ensure that the critical services we provide to clinicians will continue to benefit an even larger number of patients throughout central and southern California.”

“Joining IEHIE gives the hospitals, clinics, payers and public health departments in SJCHIE quick access to powerful and comprehensive HIE technology and services, plus the proven governance and legal expertise of IEHIE that will enable better care for patients in San Joaquin County,” said Dr. Bishop, San Joaquin County HIE representative on the IEHIE governing council. “IEHIE has become the blueprint for what it takes to establish and maintain a successful HIE, and we are proud to partner with the organization to better serve the clinicians and patients throughout San Joaquin County with expanded access to health data and the tools needed to realize our care improvement goals.”

Partnering with IEHIE gives SJCHIE access to Orion Health HIE, a robust platform that includes Orion Health Clinical Portal, Clinical Data Repository and Rhapsody Integration Engine. Orion Health HIE provides clinicians with secure, web-based access to the most up-to-date patient information and to a range of capabilities that support further improvements in care, including automatic reporting of immunizations, electronic labs and syndromic surveillance data required for public health reporting and achieving Meaningful Use. IEHIE will also roll out additional Orion Health HIE modules, including the Meaningful Use-certified EMR Lite, to support physician adoption of electronic health records (EHRs), Orion Health Patient Portal, to encourage patient engagement in care, and Orion Health Business Intelligence to facilitate improvements in efficiency, all of which will be immediately available to San Joaquin County HIE participating organizations.

Joining IEHIE also brings SJCHIE under the guidance of IEHIE’s comprehensive governance and legal structures, offering the benefits of a self-funded business model that offers long-term sustainability and financial durability. The fully-managed model allows SJCHIE to easily incorporate additional healthcare organizations into its HIE and quickly offer new services and technologies to clinicians and patients in the San Joaquin County area.

“The growth of IEHIE is further proof of the progress the organization has made in achieving its goal of providing a sustainable HIE for the benefit of healthcare providers and their patients in California,” said Paul Viskovich, president, Orion Health North America. “Orion Health is committed to supporting IEHIE and SJCHIE as they partner to ensure that clinicians have the critical health data and eHealth tools they need to provide better care to their large patient populations.”

About Inland Empire Health Information Exchange
The Inland Empire Health Information Exchange (IEHIE) is a collaborative of Riverside and San Bernardino County hospitals, medical centers, medical groups, clinics, IPAs, physician practices, health plans, public health and other healthcare providers. IEHIE brings needed technology to access and securely share electronic patient health records for more than 4.1 million people living in the Inland Empire. The IEHIE gives healthcare providers immediate access to a state-of-the-art electronic health records network. IEHIE technology allows doctors, clinics, hospitals and other healthcare providers to electronically review and access medical records, resulting in timely, safer and improved quality of healthcare for the patients in our region.

About Orion Health Inc.
Founded in 1993 in Auckland, New Zealand, Orion Health is the only global, independently owned eHealth technology company. With an inherent ability to interconnect a wide variety of healthcare information systems, Orion Health has become the world’s leading provider of health information exchange (HIE) and healthcare integration solutions. Orion Health has extensive experience in the design and installation of complex systems within demanding healthcare environments. Today, Orion Health products and solutions are implemented in more than 30 countries, used by hundreds of thousands of clinicians, and help facilitate care for tens of millions of patients. Clinicians, provider facilities and OEM partners rely on Orion Health to facilitate data exchange between hospitals, health systems, HIEs, and affiliated providers and medical devices, resulting in improved care coordination, increased cost savings and efficiencies, and enhanced quality of care.

In the U.S., Orion Health™ HIE provides the technology backbone for state and regional HIEs across the country. Orion Health Rhapsody® Integration Engine is used by nearly all state and local health departments for public health reporting. Customers include Catholic Health Initiatives, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Beacon Community of the Inland Northwest, Geisinger Health System, Inland Empire HIE, Kaiser Permanente, Lahey Clinic, Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum, Lehigh Valley Health Network, Maine HealthInfoNet, Massachusetts Health Information Highway, New Hampshire Health Information Organization and St. Vincent’s HealthCare. For more information, visit www.orionhealth.com. Connect with us on Twitter, facebook and LinkedIn.