NEWS
Southern Tier HealthLink Begins Offering Records Exchange Between Practices
6/30/2011
Southern Tier HealthLink (STHL) has successfully facilitated the point to point exchange of information between two major Southern Tier medical practices and has begun offering the Electronic Healthcare Records exchange service to practices throughout the region. Working in collaboration with Medent EMR/EHR Software, STHL functioned as the conduit for the pilot practices referral management systems. STHL is now reaching out to other Medent-based practices to roll out the service.
In a successful pilot test, patient referrals flowed electronically between Endwell Family Physicians and Cardiology Associates, eliminating the need for faxes and telephone calls between the practices. In addition to enhancements in records transmission speed and accuracy, experts estimate that electronic records transmission can save practices at least $10,000 per provider per year. Expanding the pilot system out to other Medent practices in the region will further leverage the speed, accuracy and cost savings.
Dr Afzal ur Rehman, President of Cardiology Associates said, Our patients will benefit from the speed and accuracy of electronic healthcare record transmission. Cardiology Associates providers and staff are very excited to be a part of this accomplishment.
The EHR to EHR Patient Referral pilot we just completed with Endwell Family Physicians and Cardiology Associates is a wonderful demonstration of STHLs role in Connecting the Dots for healthcare records throughout the Southern Tier, commented Christina Galanis, STHL Executive Director. We are working hard to expand this service to other Medent-based providers, and STHL will be transmitting additional documents as well as developing similar services for other EHR platforms.
Southern Tier HealthLink (sthlny.com) was established with leadership and support from UHS, Lourdes Hospital and other stakeholders in 2005. STHL is a non-profit organization designed as a partnership which brings together healthcare providers and consumers in Central New York to connect the dots with technology that will improve health care quality, access and safety while reducing costs. STHL now offers a Patient Portal, allowing healthcare consumers to access, manage and monitor their health information through the internet. For more information contact Christina Galanis at or .
