Pennsylvania's Keystone Beacon Community has announced the development of new data sharing technology that will allow skilled nursing facilities without electronic health record systems to contribute patient data to a health information exchange, FierceHealthIT reports (Bowman, FierceHealthIT, 8/9).
The project was funded by Geisinger Health System, which received a three-year, $16 million grant from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT to improve patient care and health IT.
Details of New Technology
Skilled nursing facilities currently are required to submit electronic patient assessments known as minimum data sets, or MDS, to CMS.
The Keystone Beacon project uses technology created by the software company Caradigm to extract patient data from MDS and convert the information into a continuity of care document, or CCD.
Once the MDS are in CCD format, they can be transferred to a regional health information exchange. The data then can be used by any licensed health care provider who agrees to keep the information secure and private (McCann, Healthcare IT News, 8/9).
Jim Walker, Geisinger Health System's chief health information officer, said, "Any skilled nursing facility can now share a patient's information inexpensively, which helps the patient's care team work better together" (Goedert, Health Data Management, 8/10).