The New Hampshire HIE or New Hampshire Health Information Organization (NHHIO), which operates a statewide health information exchange (HIE), recently developed a connection with the Veterans Administration (VA) to enable hospitals and other provider agencies to get extra health information about vets they are treating.
Veterans mostly do not get their entire healthcare through the VA, and other providers generally have had to depend on paper-based methods when dealing with VA, claims Jeff Loughlin, a veteran and executive director of NHHIO.
Thus, an electronic link will speed and make better the quality of care, he believes. “This connection assists to remove few of the hurdles in communication and care that veterans face on a daily basis.”
The initiative was started after an outreach coordinator at the Manchester VA contacted Loughlin and they worked to enable an electronic exchange of information. To accomplish their mission, they required establishing and signing several contracts—the project uses the Direct Protocol secure messaging standard for exchange of health information, and VA, which wasn’t utilizing Direct, required contracts written and signed to ensure participants follow certain procedures of the VA.
Most states linked to VA use a shared data repository to exchange information; New Hampshire HIE is one of a handful of states that has shifted to the Direct Protocol, Loughlin says.
Because electronic communication just started 2 weeks ago, it is hard to assess progress thus far. Orion Health is the vendor offering Direct services. 2 other VA offices in New Hampshire HIE are getting ready to enable providers in their regions to exchange data electronically with the VA.
Along with the connections will come educational steps to explain to providers the benefits of electronic connectivity with VA and workflow changes they will require making. The benefits involve improved patient safety and data security, and putting data in providers’ hands quicker, while no longer depending on faxes.
One reason the connectivity came together was because the timing was correct, Loughlin elaborates. Linking with VA wasn’t a priority because providers were concentrated on achieving meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs), and VA was not ready for Direct during that period, anyway. With meaningful use winding down, VA’s outreach to Manchester was the impetus to get Direct secure messing rolling, with assistance from a Manchester VA board member who was a veteran and served as a patient advocate.
Providers will have the choice of getting PDF files, discrete data elements, a summary of care or a progress note, deployed on the workflows of providers, the technical capability of their staffs or the capabilities of the providers’ vendors.
Direct connectivity is just one piece of improved sharing of health information in New Hampshire, Loughlin contends, as the industry waits for more modern and advanced capabilities like the CommonWell, CareQuality and FHIR interoperability initiatives to mature. “There is no single solution, so we’re attempting to maximize the advantages of all of the solutions,” he further adds.
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