Infotech Lead America: Harris Corporation has signed an agreement with Quest Diagnostics to expand services of the Florida Health Information Exchange (HIE).
In 2010, Harris bagged a four-year contract with the Agency for Healthcare Administration to implement a statewide HIE infrastructure in Florida.
Florida HIE’s technology framework allows participating healthcare providers to securely access and send patient health information to authorized participants.
As part of the agreement, Harris will integrate its Direct Secure Messaging Services capability with the Care360 suite of solutions from Quest Diagnostics. This will enable the Florida HIE to connect with all users and providers of the 11,000 physician offices in Florida currently using Care360.
The Care360 suite of solutions from Quest Diagnostics is a web-based platform that provides physicians with online laboratory test ordering, e-prescribing, clinical messaging and clinical documentation.
The integration connects the Florida HIE to Care360 providers, pharmacies, and hospital members, facilitating access to necessary clinical information, communications, and improving coordination of care. Users will now be able to securely send referrals, provider-to-provider messages, and exchange patient health information such as health histories, results, medication histories, lab results, problem lists, and other clinical data.
“The addition of the 11,000 physician offices in Quest Diagnostics’ Florida physician network continues our progress toward increasing the use of the statewide HIE,” said Don Mestas, vice president, Harris Healthcare Solutions.
Last year, the Florida HIE launched the Harris Direct Secure Messaging application to enable the secure delivery and receipt of messages, while providing the audit functions needed to share clinical information.
The agreement will lead to a broader application of secure messaging and encourage rapid adoption through greater integration and market penetration. The service will connect physicians, hospitals, labs, pharmacies, and payers to a communications network that makes timely document exchange available for decision-making and coordinating care.
“With more than 60 percent of physician offices in Florida currently connected to Care360, the ability for providers to send and receive secure messages allows for more collaborative care,” said Richard A. Mahoney, vice president, Healthcare Information Solutions, Quest Diagnostics and president of its healthcare IT subsidiary MedPlus.
