Continuum of Care Integrations

eClinicalWorks is a contributing member of the CommonWell Health Alliance, whose members believe health data should be available to individuals and providers regardless of where care occurs. The Alliance is committed to creating a vendor-neutral platform that breaks down technological and process barriers that inhibit efficient health data exchange and integrates such data into EMR systems. Various vendor systems that are part of this alliance can be seen here:
http://www.commonwellalliance.org/members/

Through CommonWell Health Alliance, eClinicalWorks providers can communicate with other participants across the country. A list of organizations live/committed on CommonWell is available at:
http://www.commonwellalliance.org/providers/

If an eClinicalWorks practice has an exchange partner that uses a CommonWell participant vendor as their EMR, they can exchange data through the Interoperability Hub. Data exchange is based on Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) profile transactions and Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) transactions for a query-based exchange of clinical data.

Customers must agree to the CommonWell connection terms and will then be connected to the full CommonWell Alliance network. This service is available at no cost through an on-demand activation feature within the eClinicalWorks EMR.

eClinicalWorks is a founding member of The Sequoia Project’s Carequality Framework, a public-private collaborative to remove barriers to interoperability in healthcare nationwide. The Carequality Framework creates a common legal framework, enforces standard technical specifications, and publishes a directory of participants – enabling health information exchanges to become seamless at the point of care. Various vendor systems that are part of the Carequality Interoperability framework can be seen here: http://sequoiaproject.org/carequality/members-and-supporters/

Through Carequality, eClinicalWorks providers can communicate with other Carequality participants across the country. A list of active sites is available at: http://sequoiaproject.org/carequality/active-sites/

If an eClinicalWorks practice has an exchange partner that uses a Carequality participant vendor as their EMR, they can exchange data through the Interoperability Hub. Data exchange is based on Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) profile transactions like Cross Community Patient Discovery (XCPD) and Cross Community Access (XCA).

While there is no central repository of clinical data, as with a regional or state Health Information Exchange, there is a central database of patient demographics. eClinicalWorks has partnered with Surescripts’ nationwide network, National Record Locator Service (NRLS), to match patients and to obtain historical patient visit locations. NRLS accomplishes this by maintaining a master patient index and linkages to all care locations where a patient has received care previously.

Customers must agree to the Carequality and the Surescripts NRLS connection terms to get connected. Once connected, data will begin to be queried and received seamlessly on the backend of the system without any additional manual user input. This service is available at no cost through an on-demand activation feature within the eClinicalWorks EMR.

Information Handling Practices: eClinicalWorks makes query-based exchange functionality available to its customers, but does not handle information transmitted in the course of its customers’ use of Carequality.

eClinicalDirect HISP supports direct interoperability across all certified EHR vendor products and healthcare organizations for the secure exchange of authenticated personal health information. Utilizing Health Information Service Provider (HISP) technology, eClinicalWorks provides the necessary services for exchanging key health information using Direct protocols. By Joining the Network, providers are given options for creating Direct addresses aiding with the necessary compliance for Meaningful Use requirements of the secure exchange of clinical data.

eClinicalDirect is fully accredited under the Direct Trust bundle and is accredited by the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC). The complete list of HISPs that are part of the accredited trust bundle can be seen here: https://services.directtrust.org/about_accredited_bundle/

The Direct address issued to providers is signed by a third-party vendor, DigiCert. eClinicalWorks supports both organization and provider level certificates for Direct Secure Messaging.

The eClinicalWorks Electronic Health eXchange (eEHX) is a comprehensive HIE solution that facilitates interoperability between clinical systems in community-wide settings. eEHX is a vendor-neutral solution that gives providers real-time access to a patient’s longitudinal health record at the point of care, enhancing clinical decision support and improving coordination across different care settings. eEHX has the following components:

Longitudinal View (LV) – Creates a comprehensive patient-centric view of clinical data such as CCDA, labs, radiology, documents, discharge summaries, and more – available in a single location at the point of care.

Master Patient Index (eMPI –  A powerful tool designed to accurately cross-reference patient identifiers across multiple clinical systems. Patient reconciliation can be performed in batch mode or automatically, based on the needs of the practice.

eEHX Connect – Provides capability to exchange data between different healthcare systems and offers tools for managing these interfaces at the community level.

Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) documents can be exchanged through a series of messages using standard SOAP Web services (IHE profiles) between any eClinicalWorks EMR and an external health information exchange including private, public or regional HIEs. An edge server infrastructure is set up to support this type of exchange, allowing for a single point of connection between multiple eClinicalWorks practices and the HIE, making it a very scalable technology.