First Physician Practice Connecting EHR to the Health Information Exchange

Alpine Urology to "Go Live" on CORHIO's Network in August

With four physicians and offices in Boulder, Louisville and Longmont, Alpine Urology will be the first physician practice in Colorado to connect its electronic health record (EHR) to CORHIO's health information exchange (HIE). The HIE provides access to patient information, including lab test and pathology results, x-ray, MRI and other imaging reports, and physician transcription reports. Later this year, the network will be upgraded to include patient medication lists, allergies and immunizations as well as lab and imaging orders.

"The health information exchange will help us provide efficient, high-quality care by producing secure and accurate patient data," said Bill Carlton, Alpine Urology's practice administrator. "We send 90 percent of our labs to Boulder Community Hospital. By sharing information electronically, it eliminates the need to manually scan labs into our system, which will save our practice a lot of time, paper and man-power."

Additional benefits of health information exchange include improved patient care coordination and safety, reduction in duplication of tests and procedures, and lowered healthcare costs.

Alpine Urology has been in practice since 1985. The practice selected its current EHR software system, Greenway Medical, because of its ability to integrate into CORHIO's network. Greenway Medical and Medicity, which provides the technical infrastructure for the HIE, are currently in the testing phase of implementation for Alpine Urology to ensure that information is accurately flowing between providers. Alpine Urology is expected to be live on the HIE in August.

"The process of sharing information between providers requires a lot of collaboration and communication between all parties involved," said CORHIO Senior Project Manager and Privacy Officer, Susan Clark. "The effort between Alpine Urology, Boulder Community Hospital Greenway Medical and Medicity has been a solid partnership.  We plan to replicate this collaboration as we implement physician practices going forward."

If your practice or health care organization is interested in connecting its EHR to the CORHIO HIE, please visit our Contact Us page or call (720) 285-3200.