Statewide population health efforts are often challenged due to patients seeing a number of different providers, and regularly changing health plans. This leads to an incomplete picture of the patient, and can hinder any population health program.<\/p>\n
In addition, providers outside of the immediate care team or health plan are not always kept in the loop with regards to patient data. These organizations can include public health, behavioral health and ancillary facilities, which are all critical to the care continuum.<\/p>\n
Thankfully, HIEs are playing a major role in tackling this challenge, and Santa Cruz HIO (SCHIO<\/a>) has been providing population health solutions since 1996. According to a recent Healthcare Tech Outlook <\/em>guest article<\/a> by Bill Beighe, CIO of SCHIO, his HIE serves approximately 300,000 patients, and offers robust data exchange, care coordination, and population health solutions.<\/p>\n The organization is part of the SHIEC “Patient Centered Data Home” (PCDH) project, which alerts SCHIO when a patient receives care outside of the area. When the patient, returns home, the regional caregivers can easily query the data about care performed out of the area.<\/p>\n The County of Santa Cruz Health Service, a long-time partner of SCHIO, was also awarded<\/a> a four-year grant from the State of California for their \u201cWhole Person Care\u201d program. This effort aims to support social determinants of health by better serving patients by taking into account not just the clinical status, but also the social status of the patient.<\/p>\n