Central Illinois Health Information Exchange (CIHIE) and ICA, a leading provider of interoperability technology that enables care coordination and health information exchange (HIE), announced today that CIHIE’s largest integrated delivery network (IDN) participant, OSF HealthCare System (OSF), is operational with a cross community access (XCA) connection to the OSF electronic medical record system (EMR), Epic. The XCA technology allows for the sharing and exchange of clinical information throughout the seven Illinois OSF hospitals and with other CIHIE participants. Based in Peoria, OSF HealthCare is one of the largest health care providers and IDNs in the state of Illinois. Its physician network includes more than 600 primary care and specialty physicians, and advanced practice providers. OSF HealthCare is a multi-state organization, operating in Illinois and Michigan, and provides care to more than 3.7 million people.

XCA is a standards-based protocol established by Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) that enables groups of providers—such as OSF HealthCare System and CIHIE—to share patient data by using a common, community-wide set of policies and information technologies. By leveraging the XCA protocol, CIHIE’s allcharts™ software and OSF’s Epic EMR are able to share data in real-time while still allowing each organization to appropriately control access to the data it is responsible for managing on behalf of both patients and their physicians.

“With this important milestone, we have successfully shifted our OSF-CIHIE connectivity from test into production,” said Joy Duling, Executive Director of CIHIE. “This achievement is CIHIE’s first XCA connection. It represents not only leading edge technology, but bleeding edge technology. Achieving full operation of the Epic XCA within OSF HealthCare System adds another dimension to clinical communications for our HIE. Current participants are using Direct, XDS.b and traditional HL7. By turning on this switch, we will further enable our providers to improve care through improved information exchange and communication. This accomplishment is proof positive that CIHIE and ICA will go to great lengths to meet the technological needs and aspirations of the organizations in our region. This significant success would not be possible without the hard work and steadfast commitment from ICA, Epic, OSF and CIHIE.”

“The direction CIHIE chose to go with XCA connectivity in the region aligns with the vision and direction of OSF,” said Randy Wolfe, OSF Director of Data Management and Support Services. “The cross communication and sharing of data within the greater community will give OSF providers the latest technology and the ability to offer better patient care and safety for the many residents we serve in central Illinois. By using a standards-based protocol, this integration approach is consistent with the overall national health information exchange strategy.”

“ICA has long been committed to work with Epic and all other EMR vendors to promote standards-based interoperability across the nation,” said Gary Zegiestowsky, president and CEO of ICA. “This milestone demonstrates that this approach can work and provides a scalable solution for a wide variety of care coordination needs across the country.”

About OSF HealthCare (www.osfhealthcare.org)

OSF HealthCare, owned and operated by The Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis, Peoria, Illinois, includes OSF Healthcare System consisting of eight acute care facilities, one long-term care facility and two colleges of nursing. It also has a physician organization, employing more than 600 physicians in various specialties and nearly 50 mid-level providers which are part of the OSF Medical Group. OSF HealthCare owns an extensive network of home health services known as OSF Home Care Services and also owns OSF Saint Francis, Inc., comprised of health care-related businesses, and OSF HealthCare Foundation, the philanthropic arm of OSF HealthCare System and OSF Home Care. Additionally there are three service lines focusing on children’s, cardiovascular and neuroscience services.

About Central Illinois Health Information Exchange (CIHIE)

The CIHIE service area currently covers a population of approximately 1.3 million people and includes 27 hospitals, 20 health departments, 2,800 physicians, 280 pharmacies, 12 labs and imaging centers and numerous ancillary healthcare providers such as rehabilitation centers, behavioral healthcare, long-term care facilities and nursing homes. Member organizations include: Advocate BroMenn Medical Center, Normal; Community Health Improvement Center, Decatur; Decatur Memorial Hospital; Dr. John Warner Hospital, Clinton; Easter Seals – Peoria, Bloomington-Normal & Decatur; Heartland Behavioral Health, Decatur; Heartland Community Health Clinic, Peoria; Human Service Center, Peoria; Illinois Gastroenterology Institute, Peoria; Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Peoria; Macon County Health Department, Decatur; Methodist Medical Center of Illinois, Peoria; OSF Healthcare System; Proctor Hospital, Peoria; St. Mary’s Hospital, Decatur; St. Mary’s Hospital, Streator; and the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria. Members can access the exchange through the allcharts™ software. This local network will ultimately be able to connect with other regional and national exchanges, supporting extensive information portability for patients. For information: cihie.org. Follow CIHIE on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google +, or Twitter.

About ICA

Originating from clinical informatics solutions developed within Vanderbilt Medical Center, ICA’s state-of-the-art CareAlign® interoperability and informatics platform addresses and solves data and communication challenges for many healthcare entities, including hospitals, IPAs, IDNs, HIEs, payers and others. CareAlign delivers a flexible architecture to connect, collect, consume and intelligently distribute data through Direct, IHE, HL7, and custom methods for use in EHRs, third party applications, and ICA’s applications. CareAlign unites a wide range of information supporting analytics associated with population health management, transitions of care communication, re-admissions reduction, meaningful use requirements and PCMH/ACO operations. Visit www.icainformatics.com, and follow us on Twitter, ICA HITme Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.