Delaware Health Information Network launches tracking tools for healthcare consumers

Delaware Health Information Network, one of the nation's leading health information exchanges, is revolutionizing the healthcare market with a new consumer-facing program designed to empower patients across the state. Through new tools and information, the program will offer patients access to their medical information as reported to the network and shared among their medical providers.

"When you provide transparency, you reduce the stress people feel when making healthcare decisions," said Randy Farmer, DHIN chief operating officer. "Our goal with this consumer-facing program is to bring patients closer to their health information. Ultimately, this is at the core of our mission to facilitate better healthcare by improving communication and access to information. We want to make people aware of who we are and where we fit into the overarching healthcare landscape all the way down to their own personal plan of care."

Three transparency tools at patients' fingertips

The newly launched program, which is supported by an extensive advertising and educational campaign, offers three consumer-based tools that can connect Delawareans with their personal healthcare information across a variety of platforms.

The Health Check Alert app will send a secure text message to advise a subscriber of several important items: that a medical result has been delivered to his or her doctor; that a medical professional has accessed the patient's medical record; or that the subscriber has been admitted to the emergency room or hospital.

This free service will offer greater transparency of a patient's healthcare information and may help accelerate the identification of potentially fraudulent activity and abuse of health insurance information. It also helps improve care through better communication around patient care plans.

"Let's say you receive a secure text with information about your lab results being ready, but you haven't had lab work done," said Stacey Haddock Schiller, DHIN director of marketing. "You and your medical practitioner can immediately identify and prevent another individual's health information from affecting your personal plan of care down the road."

DHIN promotes access to telemedicine service through MDLive. This online service provides around-the-clock access to a Delaware board-certified physician, whether at home, in the office or on the go. Doctors speak with patients by phone or video chat to diagnose non-emergency medical conditions and prescribe treatment as appropriate. The service is available for $14.95 a month for an individual or $17.95 per month for a family - less than the cost of an emergency room copay, in many cases.

Health Check Connect is the cornerstone of DHIN's consumer engagement efforts. The personal health record will help consumers access the same information their medical caregivers see. Personal health information reported into DHIN's Community Health Record - test results, doctors' notes and imaging studies, for example - will be made available through a secure portal for a patient to see and add to with prescription information, vital statistics and data from personal health trackers.

The PHR will be interactive: it can help patients chart their progress toward reaching health goals, allow for the secure exchange of messages with healthcare providers, and provide a dashboard for at-a-glance health profiles.

For more information, go to www.DHIN24seven.org.