TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Sarasota County Medical Society – which is comprised of multiple groups of independent providers representing over 100 physicians – Sarasota Memorial Hospital and First Physicians Group are the latest healthcare providers to embrace HIE Networks’ local, community-driven Florida Health Data Network (FHDN). The FHDN is the only working health information exchange (HIE) network in Florida that focuses on connecting providers in any part of the state. HIE Networks is also exclusively endorsed by Florida Medical Association (FMA).
“The decision to join HIE Networks and the FHDN was made by multiple healthcare providers in our community and is aimed at making our community a better place to deliver and receive healthcare,” said Robert Knego, M.D., immediate past president of the Sarasota County Medical Society and a practicing neurosurgeon. “We invited proposals from several HIE vendors to our community and decided HIE Networks was the best fit to help us accomplish our goal of keeping HIE local and allowing providers to maintain autonomy from mandated directives. Additionally, the fact that the FHDN has other member communities in production allows us to leverage their lessons learned and help our community accelerate the benefits of HIE.”
“We are thrilled about Sarasota County providers choosing HIE Networks to help them improve the care they deliver to patients through more timely access to patient medical records,” said Allen Byington, CEO of HIE Networks. “Their addition will make the FHDN’s patient population grow to more than 12 percent of Florida residents. Now that the number of local providers needed for sustainability have executed contracts, we will begin deploying the HIE infrastructure in the Sarasota area and connecting them early next month.”
According to Denis Baker, chief information officer at Sarasota Memorial Hospital, the hospital strongly encouraged the health information exchange, noting that the public health system has spent years — and millions of dollars — establishing a comprehensive electronic record system.
“We’ve seen the benefits that an electronic medical record system has brought to every department in our hospital – from allergy alerts and notifications that prevent redundant tests to accelerating a patient’s access to medication or a procedure,” said Baker. “We’re looking forward to seeing those benefits extend outside the hospital walls.”
For more information about the Florida Health Data Network and HIE Networks, go to www.HIEnetworks.com, call (850) 702-0365 or email HIE@HIEnetworks.com.
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About HIE Networks, LLC
HIE Networks is a leading provider of local health information exchange (HIE) services, with secure, standards-based exchanges that create and operate efficient, effective and sustainable health information networks at the local and regional levels. By acting as a region’s single reference point for patient records, HIE Networks allows hospitals, physicians and medical practices, laboratories, pharmacies and insurers to collaborate and streamline patient care, thereby improving the safety, outcomes, privacy and efficiency of healthcare services in their local communities. The HIE Networks service mix includes practice consultation, social architecture, legal structure, hardware support, software implementation, networking, integration, training and support.
FHDN is a statewide network developed, solely funded and operated by HIE Networks, LLC, a private, physician-owned, national provider of integrated digital medical records technology. Based in Tallahassee, Fla., HIE Networks grew out of its co-founders’ successful piloting of the Big Bend Regional Healthcare Information Organization (BBRHIO), a health information exchange network serving nine counties in North Florida which has been nationally-recognized as one of the top 12 regional HIEs in the country.
About Sarasota Memorial Health Care System
Sarasota Memorial Health Care System is a regional referral center offering Southwest Florida’s greatest breadth and depth of inpatient, outpatient and extended care services, with more than 800,000 patient visits a year. Sarasota Memorial’s 806-bed acute care hospital has been recognized repeatedly as one of the nation’s largest, safest and best, with superior patient outcomes and a complete continuum of outpatient services– from urgent care clinics and physician groups, laboratory and diagnostic imaging centers, to home health and skilled nursing and rehabilitation. For more information, visit www.smh.com.