Colorado health care providers continue to collaborate with Colorado Regional Health Information Organization (CORHIO) to find ways to exchange health information while guarding the privacy of behavioral health patients.
Over the past year, CORHIO has added six new behavioral health facilities to its growing health information exchange (HIE) network—and even more are in the process to connect. So far in 2013, Colorado West Regional Mental Health Center, El Pueblo Boys and Girls Ranch, WellPower, and West Central Mental Health Center have connected to CORHIO. These organizations join the already connected Spanish Peaks Behavioral Health Center and San Luis Valley Comprehensive Community Mental Health Center.
“With CORHIO’s PatientCare 360, we hope to provide our medical providers with an information tool to better coordinate psychiatric hospital discharge planning,” said Wes Williams, PhD, Director of Research and Development for WellPower. “We see it as an important first step in health information exchange. Eventually, we want to provide bidirectional information exchange with all our community partners, seamlessly integrated into our electronic health record, for all our consumers who consent to participate.”
Another 20 Facilities in Development
In addition to the six organizations already connected, another 20 behavioral health facilities are signed up to join the CORHIO HIE and begin the technical development work to start accessing patient information:
- AspenPointe – Colorado Springs
- Axis Health System – 5 facilities in southwest Colorado
- Developmental Disabilities Health Center – Colorado Springs
- Jefferson Center for Mental Health – 11 facilities throughout the state
- Mental Health Partners of Boulder – Boulder
- Southeast Mental Health Services – La Junta
Lab Results Help Avoid Medication Errors
Fast access to lab results through HIE can reduce unnecessary testing and prevent avoidable medication errors and hospital readmissions. Behavioral health providers can review patient lab results and head off potential medication errors, which behavioral health patients are at particular risk for, given they often have complex medication plans.
“In the old days, lab results were sent to us by fax or mail, which could be unreliable and vulnerable to electronic glitches or human error,” said Dorothy Perry, CEO and President Spanish Peaks Behavioral Health Center. “Now that we can receive the results immediately, we can easily and quickly determine if a client is on the appropriate dose of medication or if there could be potential medication interactions.”
To learn more about CORHIO’s health information exchange, please visit www.corhio.org To download the CORHIO/Rose Community Foundation report on behavioral health and HIE, please visit Supporting Integration of Behavioral Health Care Through Health Information Exchange.