Health Current and the health information exchanges (HIEs) in San Diego, CA, and Santa Cruz, CA have connected to allow patient information to follow them when patients receive healthcare while traveling. These connections are an extension of the Patient Centered Data Home™ (PCDH) initiative that was piloted in 2016 by Health Current and two western HIEs through the Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaborative (SHIEC), the national trade association of HIEs. Health Current, Arizona’s HIE, connected with UHIN, the HIE for Utah, and Quality Health Network (QHN), the HIE for the western slope of Colorado, in 2016 and began exchanging patient information in the first pilot of PCDH.  

PCDH allows HIEs to exchange hospital admission, discharge and transfer (ADT) notifications for patients living in one geographic area but receiving healthcare in another. By exchanging zip code data, participating HIEs can send and receive notifications on patients who are away from their home HIE or “data home.” These notifications can trigger the exchange of patient information with a patient’s home HIE and the HIE where the patient is traveling, and this exchange also provides the patient encounter information back to the patient’s home HIE or “data home.”

Melissa Kotrys, CEO of Health Current, sees the new connections as a demonstration of the value of PCDH. “In the pilot last year, we demonstrated the value and viability of this system of sending patient encounter alerts in real time among HIEs. These new connections are building on that success,” Kotrys said.