The Western New York Beacon Program (WNY Beacon), funded though the Office of the National Coordinator as part of a larger effort to increase health information exchange and provider connections, has released its final report boasting significant accomplishments in the region. EHR adoption and HIE through the regional information exchange called HealtheLink have increased dramatically since 2009, with more than 102 million reports available from a patient population that has grown 200% over just one year.
“New York State has made an unprecedented investment in our statewide infrastructure and collaborative governance efforts to enable widespread, interoperable health information exchange,” said Shannon Kelley Kinnear, director of programs for the Division of Health IT Transformation, New York State Department of Health. “Leveraging these existing connections between providers and RHIOs provides an additional return-on-investment by improving the quality, timeliness and efficiency of public health reporting and by facilitating provider access to public health data via their preferred workflow – electronic health records.”
More than 550,000 patients have provided opt-in consent to have their records shared through the program, resulting in 188,500 continuity of care documents transmitted for referrals from primary care providers to specialists. Electronic prescribing has increased by 51% since 2009, and 98 practices have benefitted from the WNY Beacon’s focus on using health IT to transform the clinical workflow, reduce costs, and provide more efficient and effective care.
One notable project is the expansion of patient registries to track diabetes. Over two hundred primary care providers have contributed data on 40,000 diabetic patients. The focus on disease management through health IT has brought down the number of uncontrolled diabetes cases by between five and ten percent, and reduced the number of hospitalizations by 26% between 2009 and 2012.
“Compared to the overall trend in the WNY community, early-adopter Beacon practices prevented three hospitalizations for every 100 diabetic patients in 2012,” the report states. “This translates to a savings of approximately $600 per diabetic patient per year. If only 20% of the diabetic patients in Western New York were impacted, the estimated reduction in hospital costs would be $18 million per year.”
Patient portal use, preventative remote monitoring, and educational outreach also contributed to the success of the diabetes pilots. WNY also launched a real-time medication management program to alert all participating providers to any changes in prescriptions after an emergency room visit or other provider interaction.
“Thanks to WNY Beacon, HealtheLink is stronger and better positioned for future growth,” the report concludes. “The Beacon funding helped to accelerate the adoption and usage of the exchange by adding data sources and improving the workflow of nearly 100 practices. Moving forward, the successes of WNY Beacon will continue to serve as a guide for the creative and effective use of electronic clinical information, both locally and across the nation.” Source
