Hospitals create ET's 1st health info-sharing web

Network links providers through central data bank

By KRISTI L. NELSON, nelsonk@knews.com
June 30, 2004

When providing health care, it's inevitable that competing hospital systems cross paths.

A new project of Knoxville information technology organizations Digital Crossing Networks, the Clear Path Group and Technology 2020 intends to shorten those paths between health-care providers.

Today, Digital Crossing and Clear Path Group announced the formation of etHIN - East Tennessee Health Information Network. The first in the region, the network will allow hospital systems and other health organizations to share information through a centralized data bank, increasing efficiency and cutting costs.

Digital Crossing CEO Dennis Corley said the company was approached two years ago by a Knoxville hospital about starting a network that regional hospital systems could use to share information while also sharing network set-up and operation costs. A handful of such networks exist in other parts of the country.

With Knoxville's four largest systems - Baptist Health System, Covenant Health, St. Mary's Health System and University Health Systems - on board, Corley and Clear Path President Alan Hill set about working with information technology staff at each hospital to find out what needs such a network could reasonably meet.

"With the increased availabilities of electronic patient data, we have opportunities to improve patient care and safety throughout the region," said Chester Maze, chief information officer for Baptist Health System. "The founding hospitals of this network had a preliminary goal of building the technical infrastructure to ensure physicians have the information necessary for treating their patients in a timely, cost-effective and secure environment."

The infrastructure connects providers, rather than being a repository for data. Now being piloted is the first of what Corley expects to be several applications of the etHIN: electronically exchanging images between hospitals.

"A patient may come into Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge and then be transported by Lifestar (helicopter) to University of Tennessee Medical Center," said Mike Ward, chief information officer for Covenant Health. "Today, if you have any digital images (such as MRIs or CT scans), you have to wait until a CD is burned before the images - and the patient - can be transported."

And because those images have such a high resolution, in order to be useful to the physician, it sometimes takes a long time to burn a compact disc, he added.

Over etHIN, the treating physician at one hospital can request the image from another, and it can be digitally sent through the network quickly - even allowing a physician to access the image at home.

"Without a network for sharing, a lot of these images get lost" in transport, Corley added, forcing providers to spend time and money redoing the same scans.

"This is a more secure, more efficient way to share information," he said.

Corley stresses that, although it was founded by four hospital systems, every health-care provider in the region can join the network.

"We've started really small," he said.

But future applications will grow the network, he said. Next up is devising a way physicians can log into the network at one centralized point to access information from any hospital at which they have privileges. Right now, physicians need different programs and passwords for each hospital.

"All (hospitals) are doing physician access a little differently, so this would make physicians' lives a lot easier," said Tammy Lakins, regional director of information technology for St. Mary's Health System.

Future possible etHIN uses include letting providers transfer the results of laboratory tests; verify patients' insurance information; check the status of insurance claims; and participate in continuing education. The network could also serve as a forum where regional providers and health departments could share information during a terrorist attack or natural disaster.

"(etHIN) opens a new door," Ward said. "We really haven't gone inside yet to explore what's realistic."

Information technicians have to secure patients' privacy, as required by law, which makes implementing certain programs "complex," Corley said.

There's also the issue of funding. While most of the health systems' information technology staff has been working "pro bono" with Hill and himself, Corley said, there will eventually be a need for more programming staff. He hopes etHIN will get some of the $50 million President Bush has called for to fund such health information networks around the country, so that other uses for the etHIN can be developed.

"There's just endless possibilities," Lakins said. "It's great that the (hospital systems) are working together because we're usually competitors."

Health writer Kristi L. Nelson may be reached at 865-342-6434.

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