CurrentCare announces HIE milestone

PROVIDENCE – CurrentCare, Rhode Island’s Health Information Exchange and a service of the Rhode Island Quality Institute, is the first in the United States to exchange behavioral health data electronically, CurrentCare announced Thursday.

According to the organization release, CurrentCare is the first statewide HIE in the national to exchange the data electronically. The Providence Center and Gateway Healthcare Inc. were the first organizations to submit behavioral health and substance abuse treatment information into CurrentCare.

“This is a major milestone in the progress of CurrentCare and efforts to improve the quality and safety of care in Rhode Island,” said Laura Adams, president and CEO at RIQI, in prepared remarks. ”For the first time, behavioral health and substance abuse data are integrated, enabling care of the whole person, and bringing providers together in service of this goal.”

A Quality Institute release said the exchange of protected health information is possible because of CurrentCare’s opt-in model, which “requires informed patient consent before CurrentCare can collect information about a patient and share it with the patient’s authorized health care providers.”

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For behavioral health patients, the opt-in model enables medical and behavioral health providers to interact and work more closely to provide coordinated, patient-centered care.

“The availability of information through the exchange will ensure that healthcare providers have ready access to important patient history,” Gateway Healthcare President and CEO Richard Leclerc said in a statement. “This will facilitate more responsive and coordinated care than we have been able to achieve to date. Participating in Rhode Island’s Health Information Exchange will help eliminate duplicative testing and medical interventions while achieving superior patient care and outcomes.”

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