eHealthAlign Health Information Exchange Names ICA as Health Information Exchange (HIE) Solution Provider for Multi-State HIE

NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Informatics Corporation of America (ICA, www.icainformatics.com) announced today that it has been selected by eHealthAlign as a strategic partner to furnish the technology and infrastructure for a multi-state regional HIE that will serve the greater Kansas City area including 13 counties in Kansas, 12 counties in Missouri, 36 hospitals, 3,000 primary care physicians and 35 safety net clinics.

“ICA’s technology solution is perfect to support our mission of improving the accessibility, quality, safety and efficiency of health care delivery in the greater Kansas City area”

“ICA’s technology solution is perfect to support our mission of improving the accessibility, quality, safety and efficiency of health care delivery in the greater Kansas City area,” said Laura McCrary, Ed.D, health care initiative director for the Mid-America Regional Council, which provides administrative support to eHealthAlign. “ICA’s secure, integrated, interoperable HIE will support the clinical data needs of physicians, hospitals, patients and employers, and will lay the foundation for a patient-centric environment giving all stakeholders the ability to choose and access information at the point-of-care. This approach will provide immediate access to a patient’s medical history, and enable physicians to make better treatment decisions avoiding costly and unnecessary duplicate tests and adverse drug reactions.”

Jason M. Mitchell, MD, chairman of the board of eHealthAlign, the non-profit community collaborative implementing HIE throughout greater Kansas City, adds, “The ability to draw upon a shared technology infrastructure across a broad geographic, multi-community region will enable us to rapidly gain the economies of scale and shared workflows essential to delivering higher quality care at lower cost. By combining trusting stakeholder relationships with ICA's technology platform, patients and physicians will be empowered to communicate in a more comprehensive way, with both gaining greater advantage and quality through appropriate access to clinical data.”

Gary M. Zegiestowsky, CEO of ICA, concludes, “The CareAlign™ solution provides the ability to leverage a single infrastructure from community to community, region to region, and enable a truly patient-centric environment. CareAlign™ supports eHealthAlign’s mission of improved clinical data exchange, as well as the intent of meaningful use as outlined and mandated by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and the HITECH Act, by providing the information physicians need to make informed decisions at the point of care, as well as the ability to monitor and report on care delivered. We look forward to supporting the greater Kansas City region as it increases accountability and sustainability in this significant population center.”

Implementing the CareAlign™ solution will be a phased approach with the first phase devoted to addressing EMR, clinical messaging, personal health records, e-prescribing and physician referrals. This approach will allow for the accurate and logical construction of the CareAlign™ HIE solution in the greater Kansas City metropolitan area that will enable the sizeable populations in this region to benefit from the rich data and easy exchange provided by the technology infrastructure. Subsequent phases will address patient registries, medical reconciliation and reporting as the full scope of this solution spans the dense care delivery system of this region.

Developed by practicing physicians and informatics professionals at Vanderbilt Medical Center and implemented in both enterprise and HIE environments, ICA’s CareAlign™ provides:

Provider and patient portal with secure clinical communication
Standards-based interoperability (IHE, NHIN)
EHR light functionality (Ambulatory orders, ePrescribing, vitals and summaries)
Population management, analysis and reporting (Disease dashboards)

About Informatics Corporation of America (ICA)

Informatics Corporation of America (ICA) was established to take innovative technology developed by Vanderbilt Medical Center to the broader health care market, and now delivers a comprehensive HIE solution to hospitals, IDNs, communities and states. Unmatched in its ability to yield cost efficiency, improved patient care, and better outcomes, ICA’s CareAlign™ solution captures complete data to enhance the decision-making process. The CareAlign™clinical intelligence engine empowers HIEs to leverage existing core systems and construct a longitudinal patient record. CareAlign™ also features provider/patient portals, secure clinical communication, NHIN compliant interoperability, EHR-lite and population management tools. Visit www.icainformatics.com; follow us on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/icainformatics; and Facebook: www.facebook.com -- Keyword: Informatics Corporation of America.

About eHealthAlign

eHealthAlign is a non-profit health information exchange organization. The mission of eHealthAlign is to enhance access, quality, safety and the efficiency of health care through the implementation of a secure, integrated, interoperability health information exchange that supports the data needs of authorized users across organizational boundaries. This is a community collaborative working to enhance health care through a secure exchange of health information. eHealthAlign is supported locally by recognized community leaders. MARC provides support to the incubation and development directed and governed of this organization.

About the Mid-America Regional Council

The Mid-America Regional Council promotes regional cooperation through leadership, planning and action. MARC is a nonprofit association of city and county governments and the metropolitan planning organization for the bi-state Kansas City region. Governed by a board of locally elected officials, MARC serves nine counties and 120 cities. It provides a forum for the region to work together to advance social, economic and environmental progress. MARC is funded by federal, state and private grants, local contributions and earned income and services.

The Regional Health Care Initiative (RHCI) sponsored by MARC is a regional initiative promoting innovative, collaborative approaches to providing health care to the uninsured and medically underserved. This initiative is funded through the REACH Healthcare Foundation and the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City.