Participants in CORHIO Network Now Have Access to Data From Three Wyoming Hospitals

Three Banner Health hospitals throughout Wyoming are now sending clinical data into CORHIO’s Health Information Exchange network.

The CORHIO Health Information Exchange (HIE) network is now enhanced with clinical data, including laboratory, radiology and pathology results, admit/discharge/transfer information, and transcription notes from three additional hospitals in the Banner Health system:

• Washakie Medical Center
• Platte County Memorial Hospital
• Community Hospital

All three of these facilities are located in Wyoming and are critical access hospitals - each with 25 beds. Platte County Memorial Hospital is in southeast Wyoming, close to Fort Laramie. Community Hospital in Torrington not far from Platte County Memorial Hospital and in the far eastern part of the state, practically on the Nebraska border. Washakie Medical Center is in northern Wyoming in the town of Worland.

Utilizing Existing Technology

The Wyoming hospitals are sending clinical data to the CORHIO HIE through their Cerner electronic health record system. “Banner Health was able to utilize the infrastructure and processes we already had in place with our Colorado-based hospitals providing data to CORHIO, which made the inclusion of our Wyoming facilities very straight forward,” said Steve Rains, Banner Health Western Division IT Leader. “We are excited of the potential benefits Health Information Exchange can bring to the patients of Wyoming at not only at our Banner Health hospitals, but also as other hospitals in Wyoming join the exchange.”

Real-World Interoperability

Interoperability – or when different systems can communicate and share information – is a hot topic at the moment for lawmakers, health IT vendors, healthcare providers and government agencies. Interoperability was a main focus of the recent HIMSS conference, with several high-profile organizations announcing a pledge to support it. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) released its final interoperability roadmap last year, calling for an end to information blocking, adoption of federal interoperability standards, and a higher level of consumer access to their health information.

“CORHIO and our partners are making real headway in blurring state lines to exchange vital patient health information,” said Kelly Joines, CORHIO CIO. “We connect disparate networks and systems every day, enabling patient data available at the point of care.”