HJAR Mar/Apr 2020

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS I  MAR / APR 2020 13 department in streamlining public health reporting. By developing a common data entry point, SHARE will reduce the num- ber of touchpoints required for registry and other case reporting obligations. SHARE will receive pertinent data from patient care providers, and distribute to the appropriate offices withinADH. Priority projects include the automation of data collection for cancer and immunization registries. SHARE is also exploring improved distribution of newborn laboratory screening test results from the state lab. Recently, SHARE’s outreach grewwith the $817,000 grant to theArkansas Rural Health Partnership from Arkansas Blue Cross to implement a data sharing network in southeast Arkansas. This financial support will substantially upgrade the informatics capacity of their 14 hospitals and 108 clinics. “It is imperative our member hospitals be fully prepared for value-based care,” said Mellie Bridewell, ARHP CEO and a UAMS regional director of strategy, management, and administration, in a news release. “They must be able to share and have access to patient data, as well as the support of a sys- tem that can assist themwith compiling and collecting data to use in treating patients. Without this assistance, our small rural hos- pitals will not be able to financially survive the changes ahead.” This article reviews current activities of OHIT and SHARE, but future initiatives are on the horizon. Discussions are under- way to incorporate PULSE (Patient Unified Lookup Systems for Emergencies) into our state’s EMT communications to facilitate tri- age and preparation of hospitals to receive patients needing specific urgent care. Smart “As the healthcare landscape continues to transform, HIEs play a key role in providing data that fuels innovation, reduces unnecessary waste, and assists with reducing medical errors.” FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) promises to enable transmis- sion of EHR data directly to databases for analysis and patient information sharing, without proprietary software frommultiple medical records vendors. It is our hope that Smart FHIR will collect clinical quality data without burdensome chart review. There are several other emerging soft- ware solutions to expand the extraction and accuracy of clinical data to trusted clinical partners. The national Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) will soon publish extensive new regulations, Trusted Exchange Framework and CommonAgree- ment (TEFCA), that will reduce information blocking and facilitate data utilities like SHARE to integrate clinical records across sites. The future is intriguing and arriving sooner than many would think. n