NATIONAL HARBOR, Md., Aug. 19, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ninety-two percent of the U.S. population is served by America’s health information exchanges (HIEs) who are members of the Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaborative (SHIEC), according to survey results released today by the national collaborative. These results were released as SHIEC opens its 5^th annual national conference in National Harbor, MD.

Seema Verma, Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), will deliver the keynote address for the 5^th annual SHIEC conference and Verma’s keynote address will be followed by a packed two-and-a-half day agenda featuring federal agency representatives, HIE thought leaders, the nation’s most progressive HIEs and successful business and technology partners. More than 630 attendees are expected for the two-and-a-half day conference.

Administrator Verma will be an excellent keynote for the 5^th annual national conference, according to Kelly Hoover Thompson, CEO of SHIEC. “Our HIE community needs to work closely with CMS to achieve national interoperability and healthcare value goals, and we know that SHIEC member HIEs will play a significant role in achieving these goals,” Thompson said. “A keynote address by Administrator Verma at our annual conference is an indication of the growth and progress of our national organization,” Thompson added.

The survey shows not only the growth of HIEs nationally but also the value that is being delivered, Thompson said. “We’ve believed in the value of HIEs since the early days of SHIEC, but we wanted to measure how HIEs provide critical national infrastructure to improve the way health care is delivered in communities across the nation,” she said.

SHIEC was founded in 2014 and now has 135 organizations which include 76 HIE members, and 59 strategic business and technology (SB&T) members, organizations that sell products and services to HIEs. The HIEs in SHIEC have provided more than 650 years of combined service to their communities.

Critical Infrastructure
The survey shows that America’s HIEs are serving 92% of Americans, delivering more than one billion clinical alerts annually. These are real-time notifications of hospital admissions, discharges or transfers (ADTs) delivered to doctors, hospitals and other organizations tasked with coordinating the care and services of high-needs patients. These alerts trigger follow-up and care coordination that reduce hospital readmissions and improve outcomes as demonstrated in HIE case studies available on the SHIEC website.

Real-time alerts across the nation
In 2016, SHIEC member HIEs came together to connect the nation through the Patient Centered Data Home® Model, enabling near-real time alerting about important clinical events across the nation. The survey shows that the PCDH model continues to grow, with participation increasing by 230 percent and the number of alerts delivered increasing by more than 300 percent over the last year. More than 200 million patients are served by HIEs connected to the nationwide PCDH network.

More than Healthcare Data
Survey results show the critical role that HIEs play in connecting communities, from ensuring that patient records are available from all of the top electronic health record systems to community connections with pharmacies, labs, behavioral health, and state and federal agencies. As value-based healthcare brings more focus to patients’ social needs, HIEs are providing critical infrastructure in connections to organizations such as blood banks, social service agencies, dialysis centers, first responders, state and county correctional health, school nurses and drug & alcohol treatment centers.

Dan Porreca, executive director of HEALTHeLINK and chair of the SHIEC Board, believes that HIEs now connect critical infrastructure in communities across the country. “Across the country, HIEs are working with a broad range of organizations that form the fabric of community social service networks,” Porreca said, “and HIEs are sharing information to improve health care and health status.”

Limited space is available at the 2019 SHIEC Annual Conference. Information and registration is available here.

About SHIEC
SHIEC is the national collaborative of health information exchanges (HIEs) and strategic business and technology partners. As the unbiased data trustees in their communities, SHIEC’s 80+ member HIE organizations manage and provide for the secure digital exchange of data by medical, behavioral and social service providers to improve the health of the communities they serve. Collectively, SHIEC members serve 92% of the U.S. population.

For more information about SHIEC, visit info@strategichie.com and follow us on Twitter at @SHIEClive.

Media Contact:
Jim Lubinskas
(703) 907.9103
jlubinskas@spirecomm.com