The Health Information Exchange team, from left: Ben Kaplan, Operations Manager, Interoperability, Information Technology (IT); Donny Patel, Director, Interoperability, IT; Jason Martin, Senior Director, System Integration and Interoperability, IT; Mark DeLaney, Vice President, IT; Kumar Chatani; Hai Ly, Epic Mobile Applications Analyst III, IT; Stacey Cohen, Clinical Informaticist, IT; and Joseph Kannry, MD, Lead Technical Informaticist, Epic EMR Clinical Transformation Group.
The Mount Sinai Health System’s Information Technology Department has created and recently launched an award-winning electronic medical record database, known as the Health Information Exchange (HIE), which will continue to be rolled out to Health System providers over the coming months. The new web-based portal unifies data in real time and will give Mount Sinai clinicians and affiliated physicians an unprecedented ability to review patient data without delay in order to make timely and accurate medical decisions and reduce the incidence and costs of unnecessary or duplicate tests.
The team behind the HIE implementation also expects the database to reduce insurance claim denials significantly because it allows the transmission of patient information to insurance companies at the time of the patient’s arrival, including information such as the chief patient complaint and reason for visit, which validates the claim.
These improved efficiencies garnered wide attention recently when the Mount Sinai Health System received a 2016 CIO 100 Award from CIO magazine for its HIE initiative, an honor granted to organizations across the nation that exemplify the highest level of innovation, and operational and strategic excellence, in information technology. “We are honored to be named a 2016 CIO 100 organization,” says Kumar Chatani, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Mount Sinai Health System. “The continued implementation of our Health Information Exchange portal will provide continuity of care for patients regardless of where they enter the Health System, which has always been our goal.”