WASHINGTON, Aug. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DirectTrust today released eight use-case studies from five organizations demonstrating how secure messaging using Direct exchange is helping to enhance the coordination of health care throughout the country. The case studies range from hospitals and emergency departments using Direct to send messages at the time of discharge to Direct Interoperability facilitating referral management between primary care physicians and specialists. DirectTrust is a non-profit health care industry alliance created to support secure, identity-verified electronic exchanges of protected health information (PHI) between provider organizations, and between providers and patients, for the purpose of improved coordination of care.
“Direct interoperable exchange of health care information throughout communities has been steadily increasing over the past few years enabling significant enhancements to providers’ ability to impact safe, timely patient care,” said Holly Miller, MD, Chief Medical Officer at MedAllies, who also serves as co-chair of the DirectTrust Clinician’s Steering Workgroup which recently issued a request for case studies. “The Direct interoperable technology is working, however, these stories indicate that success requires strong leadership, change management and developing new workflows. Implementations may require inter-organizational planning and communication. Our hope is that other communities will learn from the success of these organizations.”
Following are the organizations that submitted use-case studies and a description of the study(ies) submitted:
- Circle Health
Hospital ADT notifications to patient’s primary care physician’s electronic health record via Direct exchange; physician-enabled push of patient info to hospital upon receipt.
- Kno2
Transitioning fax-based workflows to Direct exchange.
Direct Interoperability closing the loop on diabetic eye exam referrals.
- Reliant Health Group
Automated patient summaries to the ED to optimize ED patient care.
Automated push event notifications and care plan updates to home health.
- Sutter Health
Bi-directional closed loop referrals.
- Department of Veterans Affairs
Bi-directional acute ambulatory Direct exchange patient messages.
Direct exchange-enabled closed loop referrals with non-VA community specialists.
The case studies can be accessed HERE.
Steven Lane, MD, Clinical Informatics Director, Privacy, Information Security and Interoperability at Sutter Health, who also serves as co-chair of the DirectTrust Clinician’s Steering Workgroup, commented, “The success of Direct interoperability demonstrated by these provider organizations and HIT vendors shows how powerful this tool can be in solving some of our most basic interoperability challenges. These are relatively simple solutions that can be implemented using any certified EHR. We hope to get the word out to clinicians across the country so they can work with their clinics and hospitals to put this technology to work for their patients. CMS has declared that they want to do away with faxing in healthcare by 2020. This is how we will accomplish that goal.”
Note to Editors: If you would like to speak with executives about their organization’s use-case study, please contact Ed Emerman at eemerman@eaglepr.com or 609.275.5162.
About DirectTrust
DirectTrust is a six -year old, non-profit, vendor neutral, self-regulatory entity initially created by and for participants in the Direct community, including Health Internet Service Providers (HISPs), Certificate Authorities (CAs), Registration Authorities (RAs), doctors, patients and vendors, and supports both provider-to-provider as well as patient-to-provider Direct exchange. In the period 2013 to 2015, DirectTrust was the recipient of a Cooperative Agreement Award from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) as part of the Exemplar HIE Governance Program. DirectTrust serves as a forum and governance body for persons and entities engaged in the Direct exchange of electronic health information as part of the Nationwide Health Information Network (NwHIN). DirectTrust's Security and Trust Framework is the basis for the voluntary accreditation of service providers implementing Direct health information exchange. The goal of DirectTrust is to develop, promote, and, as necessary, help enforce the rules and best practices necessary to maintain security and trust within the Direct community, consistent with the HITECH Act and the governance rules for the NwHIN established by ONC. DirectTrust is committed to fostering widespread public confidence in the interoperable exchange of health information. To learn more, visit www.directtrust.org.
Contact:
Ed Emerman
Eagle Public Relations
609.275.5162
eemerman@eaglepr.com