Memorial Hermann Launches HIE for Houston

Memorial Hermann Healthcare System in Houston has launched a health information exchange to communicate with community providers in the Houston region.

Providers who join agree to contribute data to the HIE, called the Memorial Hermann Information Exchange, or MHiE. Early adopters include Richmond Bone & Joint Clinic, Physicians at Sugar Creek, Memorial Hermann Medical Group and the delivery system's hospitals and imaging centers.

Patients must opt-in by signing a consent form. Cerner Corp. is Memorial Hermann's core electronic health records vendor and also is supplying the HIE technology. The HIE supports clinical information exchange through a Continuity of Care Document; lab and radiology orders, results and transcribed documents; and access to diagnostic images within minutes of upload. DICOM Grid is the image exchange vendor.

Electronic health records vendors supporting the exchange, in addition to Cerner, include eClinicalWorks and GE Centricity. Vendors supporting the exchange of diagnostic orders and results include Allscripts, eClinicalWorks, GE Centricity, Greenway Medical Technologies and Supra, with several others in the process of doing so, says Robert Weeks, director of information systems. GE Healthcare and Philips are among vendors participating in image exchange

The only cost to providers to join the HIE is the cost of being connected by their vendors, if any, Weeks says.