Health Current Releases Two New COVID-19 Alert Enhancements: Dynamic Alerts & Batch Alerts via Secure File Transfer Protocol

In our effort to support the Arizona healthcare community’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Health Current launched COVID-19 Alerts, real-time alerts on all COVID-19 lab results received by the Health Information Exchange (HIE). The community response has been positive, and interest strong with approximately 135 Participants receiving COVID-19 Alerts and support to date.

To meet the needs of those serving on the front lines, we continue to enhance the suite of COVID-19 Alert options, now providing for two new types of data delivery. Effective today, HIE Participants can now receive:

COVID-19 Dynamic Alerts – Real-time updates on a patient’s COVID-19 status during the registration or intake process. This new COVID-19 Alerts delivery option takes a real-time registration received by the HIE, typically based on an emergency or inpatient registration, and queries the database to extract any COVID-19 results for the patient. If results are found, the HIE pushes the COVID-19 results back into the originating electronic health record (EHR) system. These “dynamic” alerts are ideal for ensuring that emergency department and inpatient staff have the most up-to-date COVID-19 lab results at first patient contact.

COVID-19 Batch Alerts via SFTP – This is an enhancement to the COVID-19 Batch Alerts released earlier this month. These batch alerts can now be delivered via secure file transfer protocol (SFTP).

Thanks to HonorHealth and Dignity Health who collaborated with Health Current to put COVID-19 Dynamic Alerts into place – as a result, both health systems, as well as Valleywise Health and Banner Health are now live on this new service. Here’s just one example of how hospitals are using these new alerts to be better prepared during the epidemic:

If you are a current HIE Participant, follow the instructions below. If you are not a current participant, contact recruitment@healthcurrent.org to get started.

How to Get Started with COVID-19 Dynamic Alerts

• Contact your Health Current account manager (if you do not know who your account manager is, contact HIEsupport@healthcurrent.org).
• Schedule a kick-off meeting with your account manager to determine the best process for integrating COVID-19 Dynamic Alerts in alignment with your workflow needs.
• Considerations:
  • COVID-19 Dynamic Alerts are delivered in response to your organization’s existing admission, discharge, and transfer (ADT) feed.
  • Upon validation, the COVID-19 Dynamic Alerts will go live.
  • The set-up process for COVID-19 Dynamic Alerts typically takes 2-5 days.

How to Get Started with COVID-19 Batch Alerts via SFTP

• Determine the type of alert (positive & negative results, or positive results only) and delivery frequency (real-time or batch).
• Determine if you want to receive alerts on your existing patient panel(s) or a new one (perhaps on a vulnerable population).
• Determine who in your organization should access the Batch alerts via secure file transfer protocol (SFTP).
• Contact your Health Current account manager or the client support team at HIEsupport@healthcurrent.org to set up SFTP access for your organization’s representative.

Who supplies the COVID-19 lab results?
The HIE currently receives all COVID-19 lab results from Sonora Quest Labs, Banner Health and a variety of other hospitals, health systems and independent laboratories. We are working with all HIE data suppliers to confirm which organizations are sending COVID-19 lab results to Health Current so that the lab results process appropriately.

Collectively, over 200 organizations supply Health Current with data on more than 97 percent of hospital inpatient admissions and emergency department visits in Arizona. Any of these data suppliers that conduct COVID-19 testing or receive COVID-19 lab results will send those results to Health Current. Thus, current HIE data suppliers account for 75-80 percent of all COVID-19 lab results in Arizona. These results are available via the new COVID-19 Alerts as well as through normal HIE access services, such as the HIE Portal and bidirectional HIE interfaces.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Health Current is conducting outreach to LabCorp, TGen, Mayo and any other labs or healthcare facilities that are providing COVID-19 testing to ensure HIE participant access to the most comprehensive and complete COVID-19 lab results through the single, statewide health information exchange. As a result of this outreach, Premier Labs and Ammon Labs have joined Health Current and are working on a connection to share lab results, including COVID-19 results.

Better data. Better care. Start receiving COVID-19 Alerts today.
If you have questions about COVID-19 Alerts or related services, contact your Health Current account manager or our client support team at HIEsupport@healthcurrent.org.

Learn more: COVID-19 HIE Information Center