GREATER OMAHA-COUNCIL BLUFFS, Neb.–CyncHealth, the designated state-wide health information exchange (HIE) for Nebraska, and the administrator of the state’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP), partnered with Castlemark Consulting to usher in a period of incredible growth and development of interoperability in the region following the passage of Nebraska Legislative Bill 411 (LB411). LB411 facilitated near-universal participation for the sharing of healthcare records amongst the states’ healthcare facilities with the statewide health information exchange, CyncHealth.
LB411 experienced broad support from stakeholders such as hospitals, health systems, and independent providers across the state of Nebraska. The bill passed unanimously on May 21, 2021, and was signed by the Governor on May 24, 2021. CyncHealth has connected 230 new healthcare facilities and expanded data sharing from 174 facilities that were previously connected to the HIE.
Kary Nulisch, founder and CEO of Castlemark Consulting, who worked closely with CyncHealth on developing the strategy and supplementing CyncHealth’s technical teams to complete the work and has experience with similar projects in the industry across the country, said, “You will not find an HIE across the country that has this kind of growth in a year.”
CyncHealth continues to be proactive in its outreach efforts to ensure a transition that is as seamless as possible when onboarding, taking time to educate participants about the benefits of using the HIE as well as other elements of the platform, such as event notification, medication history and social care referral platform. CyncHealth’s expansive list of connections allows for broad provider engagement and provides a comprehensive view of an individual’s health history to include health care outside of traditional healthcare delivery systems. By connecting to community organizations that can provide food, emergency lodging, hygiene items and other services during a time of need—providers begin to understand an overall picture of well-being and health not typically accessed or available in an electronic form or medical record.
CyncHealth CEO Jaime Bland said:
We are pleased to demonstrate for the region and nation, what a best-in-class health information exchange can accomplish with support from a broad stakeholder group. Health Information Exchanges, like CyncHealth, play a critical role in the healthcare ecosystem and are at the forefront of promoting interoperability that supports the local needs of our communities and stakeholders.
This latest effort was made possible by support of our founding members, our board and the unanimous support of the Nebraska legislature. The work we are accomplishing in Nebraska and Iowa is an innovation in public/private partnerships that are looked at as a model for the country and even more so in the public health modernization efforts happening across the country.
Not only do we support the care coordination efforts by ensuring patient records are available no matter which electronic health record providers use in their practice setting, we support in context needs of providers, people and public health.
This was no small undertaking and through our robust partnerships with organizations like Castlemark, we can move the modernization of health information forward exponentially like we did with the inclusion of the 230+ providers.
About CyncHealth
CyncHealth is the designated health information exchange (HIE) for Nebraska and western Iowa, connecting over 5 million lives and 1,135 facilities and counting. These cross-connections are community-wide, consisting of hospitals, specialty hospitals, rural health clinics, specialty clinics, long-term post-acute care facilities, and other entities that have valuable data for monitoring the health of populations. CyncHealth participating clinicians can better care for patients by having instant access to comprehensive and longitudinal health history, including patient encounter-level reports, diagnostic history, allergies, immunizations, and laboratory results from participating facilities. For more information, visit https://cynchealth.org/.
About Castlemark Consulting
Castlemark is a nationally recognized, technology services firm specializing in healthcare data interoperability solutions. We offer a full range of services to successfully serve your HIE/HIT network – including outreach, onboarding project management, interface development, use case development, platform architecture, operational stability and strategic planning. Our team of experts leverage decades of health IT experience to support all aspects associated with the growth of your HIE network.
Visit www.castlemarkconsulting.com for more information.
