How Public Health Clinics
Use HealtheConnections
Sullivan County Public Health
HealtheConnections continues to demonstrate its commitment to supporting public health goals and objectives. Through trusted partnerships and collaborations, such as that with Sullivan County, HealtheConnections’ tools assist public health professionals in their work to protect the health of our communities.
The Sullivan County Public Health Department fully utilizes the many resources HealtheConnections provides. Epidemiologist Haley Motola, MS, states, "The staff working within the Sullivan County Department of Public Health Programs help those who would otherwise have difficulty accessing care and are vital to our community health.” She adds that the overall goal of her department is to prevent the spread of infectious agents and environmental concerns that harm human health and wellness, an area that regional health information exchanges like HealtheConnections are well positioned to support.
Motola explains, “I use HealtheConnections every day to complete infectious disease investigations. I am able to access information such as illness onset, pre-existing conditions, notification of the patient of the diagnosis, symptoms, medication prescribed and provider contact information and more,” she said. She also indicated that HealtheConnections helps her organization locate information that can be difficult to obtain, such as insurance coverage and next-of-kin.
She also said that often, the patients they work with have provided a more thorough view of their disease progression to their provider or their local emergency department. They may not be able to recall all the pertinent details when Motola’s department investigates, which can negatively impact the investigation. “HealtheConnections has reduced the impact that recall bias has on important investigations by providing information from the patient at the time of the illness, instead of relying solely on recollection,” said Motola.
Time is frequently of the essence when it comes to disease investigation, and Motola is pleased that the services offered by HealtheConnections have cut down on that time. “I used to spend a great deal of time trying to find out information from providers on the phone. With HealtheConnections, I am able to spend more time talking to the patient during the investigation, with more lab information and diagnostic transcriptions. Having faster and more timely information has been the absolute most beneficial aspect of HealtheConnections within our department.”
Making health information exchange data readily available to local health departments to support disease investigation and surveillance activities is a priority for HealtheConnections. In addition to the core services, we are actively collaborating with several local health departments to build new and innovative tools and reports to help them address public health priorities.
About HealtheConnections
HealtheConnections is the regional health information organization (RHIO) serving the 26 counties of the Central, Northern, Southern Tier, and Hudson Valley regions of New York State. We're a not-for-profit entity providing health information exchange, value-based services, and population health improvement efforts, fully accredited by the New York State Department of Health and a member of the Statewide Health Information Network of New York.
Through trusted collaboration with participants, stakeholders, and partners, we develop and deliver valued services, enabling improvements in health and healthcare delivery, resulting in healthier people, better care, and cost efficiencies. Visit us at healtheconnections.org.
helping address
social determinants of health
(SDoH)
- SDoH are conditions in the environment where people are born, live, learn, work, play and age that can influence health and well-being
- We are promoting the use of SDoH screening tools (e.g., PRAPARE) to help standardize SDoH data, and the use of ICD-10 Z-Codes to document the information
- HealtheConnections can play a role in making SDoH data centrally available on the HIE
support
quality of care coordination
for human services and community-based organizations
- Querying comprehensive clinical patient records from hundreds of data sources
- Sending secure, HIPAA-compliant communications for fast and easy-care coordination
- Viewing results delivered into your own electronic health records system for easy access
- Connecting to other state and federal partners
- Connecting your patient with community programs
support
population health improvement
initiatives
- Using data to guide planning and evaluation
- Promoting strategies that work for prevention and health improvement
- Connecting partners to communicate and collaborate
alerts delivered each month
providers receiving alerts each month
total alerts received
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