Home Health VNA announced today that it was the recipient of the prestigious 2014 Innovations Award from the Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts. The award is in recognition of the agencies leadership in the development of the Merrimack Valley Health Information Exchange (MVHIE) Collaborative and the subsequent facilitation of the secure exchange of patient information with Collaborative members using the Massachusetts Health Care Information Exchange known as Mass HIway. The award was accepted by Peg Doherty, BSN, Vice President of Operations, at the Home Care Alliance Innovations Showcase and Star Awards event held at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston on April 29.
“This MVHIE project, under the leadership of Peg Doherty, is at the forefront of healthcare technology and innovation.” said John Albert MBA, FACHE, President and CEO of the Home Health Foundation. “Peg had the vision, commitment and strategic focus to bring the Collaborative together and to develop shared goals and a mission to improve patient care communications across the Collaborative using Mass HIway. This project has strengthened the relationship between Collaborative members and has the potential to transform patient care in ways that are efficient, effective and patient-centered.” The MVHIE Collaborative is currently the only HIE project in Massachusetts that is successfully organized and led by a VNA.
An HIE automates the transfer of health related information and provides access to, and retrieval of, patient data to authorized users in order to provide safe, efficient, effective and timely patient care. HIE is the next evolution of the healthcare communications exchange system.
The MVHIE Collaborative consists of Home Health Foundation, Lawrence General Hospital, Pentucket Medical Associates and Greater Lawrence Family Health Center. The goal of the Collaborative is to develop a mechanism to share information about mutual patients to ensure quality care and to reduce issues in care transitions experienced by providers and patients. In January, 2014 the MVHIE Collaborative successfully implemented the secure infrastructure necessary to connect MVHIE providers through their respective electronic medical records. This enabled the electronic transmission of patient care information across all Collaborative members using Mass HIway. Next steps in this initiative will be to expand implementation and implement an actionable discharge summary and, using MA HIway, share critical information on patients who have visited the Emergency Room in order to provide timely follow up care.