Carequality and CORHIO: What You Should Know

What is Carequality?

Carequality is a group of networks that have agreed to share health data across systems on a national scale. The group includes electronic health record (EHR) vendors, record locator service providers, and other types of data sharing networks. Members of Carequality have agreed on a common interoperability framework to share data. There are many members, but at this time, the five EHRs that are live with record sharing (since August 2016) are Epic, Surescripts, Athena Health, NextGen and eClinical Works. In December 2016, Carequality agreed to connect with Commonwell Health Alliance, another large national exchange network. This connection has not actually taken place yet, just the agreement to do so. 

What data does Carequality have?

At this time, Carequality is exchanging clinical documents and does not have discrete results available for query. Discrete data has values that are different and separable from one another. So in a system of discrete data, the user can query and retrieve one test result, for example. With clinical documents, the user cannot query on the information they contain, but instead receives the entire document to read through for the exact data sought.

Can I join Carequality?

Healthcare providers cannot join Carequality directly, but they can access the clinical documents if they’re on one of the five live EHR vendors. It should be noted that only large hospital and ambulatory EHR vendors are live on Carequality at this time, so smaller EHRs used in specialty practices and LTPAC are not represented. 

Do I need CORHIO if my vendor gives me access to Carequality?

CORHIO recognizes that Carequality may be a good addition for organizations that require care summaries created outside of CORHIO’s network. However, clinical document exchange alone does not enable fast decision-making and works best when combined with a portal that allows the user to query and retrieve real-time patient data quickly.  CORHIO’s PatientCare 360 portal includes real-time data from 61 hospitals and major laboratories and imaging centers throughout the state.

In addition, CORHIO provides a considerable number of additional products and services to ensure organizations can meet their healthcare needs: 

• A longitudinal and consistent patient view that includes data across the care continuum, not just ambulatory care summaries
• Results directed into provider EHRs
• Patient and clinical event notifications to drive proactive, coordinated care
• Services for key public health initiatives and quality measures
• Targeted and actionable information delivered directly into workflow for population health management and value-based care
• Ongoing data normalization and harmonization across disparate systems 
• Inclusion of additional health data such as social determinants and genomics to improve data robustness and actionability
• Products and services that are unique to Colorado state needs and Colorado communities' needs

Will CORHIO be joining the Carequality network?

After careful review, at this time, CORHIO has decided not to become a Carequality member. We believe that the robustness of our statewide data and our ability to connect to other HIEs and networks provide the value our participants expect. However, we recognize that Carequality is emerging and not yet proven at scale. We will continue to monitor and evaluate its progress against our roadmap and participants’ needs.

We are happy to discuss the healthcare data exchange needs of your organization, including national initiatives like Carequality. Please contact your CORHIO outreach manager or complete the Contact Us form.