Last week, the state’s Health Information Exchange Authority, NC HealthConnex announced that Duke Health, Novant Health and Carolinas HealthCare System have signed agreements to connect to NC HealthConnex. Coastal Connect, a regional HIE in southeastern North Carolina, also has formally agreed to connect to NC HealthConnex. This connection will add five hospitals and more than 100 data contributors, acute and ambulatory, to the growing statewide HIE.
These groups join UNC Health Care and 26 hospitals that already are connected or in the queue for connection to NC HealthConnex. In addition to hospital and health system integrations, NC HealthConnex is in the process of connecting with hundreds of physician practices, health departments, federally qualified health centers, rural health clinics, and other ambulatory facilities that use cloud-based and on-premise electronic health/medical record (EHR/EMR) solutions.
In the past year, the total number of unique patients in NC HealthConnex grew by almost 30 percent, totaling close to 3.7 million.
NC HealthConnex is a secure electronic network that facilitates conversations between health care providers, allowing them to access and share health-related information across North Carolina to improve coordination of care for patients. NC HealthConnex allows participating providers to access their patients’ comprehensive records across multiple providers, as well as review labs, diagnostics, history, allergies, medications and more to help decrease redundancy and allow for more efficient and accurate diagnoses, recommendations and treatment.
Created by the North Carolina General Assembly (NCGS 90-414.7), NC HealthConnex is the state-operated health information exchange and is managed by the North Carolina Health Information Exchange Authority (NC HIEA) housed within the N.C. Department of Information Technology.
For more information, visit www.nchealthconnex.gov.
