WellStar Joins GaHIN; SHIEC Conference Next Week

SUBSCRIBE August 2018

WellStar Health System Joins GaHIN

WellStar Health System, the largest health system in Georgia, has joined GaHIN. WellStar uses the Epic EHR system and will exchange patient information with GaHIN from all of their Epic-connected facilities once the connection process is complete.

WellStar has more than 20,000 employees and 2,500 medical staff members, as well as more than 1,000 physicians and advanced practice professionals in the WellStar Medical Group.

In addition to 11 hospitals - WellStar Atlanta Medical Center, WellStar Atlanta Medical Center South, WellStar Kennestone Regional Medical Center (anchored by WellStar Kennestone Hospital), WellStar West Georgia Medical Center, and WellStar Cobb, Douglas, North Fulton, Paulding, Spalding Regional, Sylvan Grove and Windy Hill hospitals - the health system's facilities include:

8 urgent care centers
16 satellite diagnostic imaging centers
Two health parks and a pediatric center
An adult congregate living facility
Three skilled nursing facilities
Three inpatient hospices
225 medical office locations

"We are delighted to welcome WellStar as a member of GaHIN," said Denise Hines, Executive Director of GaHIN. "Through GaHIN, providers can access patient health information at the point of care to improve diagnostics and care delivery while reducing costs. The ability to access and exchange additional health information will benefit everyone in Georgia, especially patients."

SHIEC Comes to Atlanta in August

GaHIN's fellow health information exchanges (HIEs) from across the nation will be in Atlanta August 19-22 for two and a half days of education and networking. The keynote speaker is Don Rucker, MD, National Coordinator, Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

The 2018 SHIEC Annual Conference is being held at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta and advance registration is still available. The Strategic Health Info rmation Exchange Collaborative (SHIEC) is the national organization representing the health information exchanges (HIEs). SHIEC represents 60+ HIEs that collectively cover more than 200 million people in the U.S. - well over half of the American population.

Georgia Connections

Georgia is hosting the SHIEC conference this year, and GaHIN will sponsor the opening lunch on Monday, August 20. GaHIN Executive Director Dr. Denise Hines will participate on the panel: "Marketplace Disruptions - What Can HIEs Do?" GRAChIE will present at two breakout sessions: "Behavioral Health and HIEs: The Journey to Integrated Care" and "The Role of HIE in Community Innovation: Chatham County Safety Net."

GeorgiaDirect: Easy as 1, 2, 3

GeorgiaDirect members range from the largest health systems in Georgia to individual small practices and clinics throughout the entire state. We have more than 6,000 registered providers and 300+ member organizations using GeorgiaDirect, with 518,169 total transactions in 2017. As of June 2018, there have been 304,929 transactions.

GeorgiaDirect is a free secured messaging service that is both ONC Certified and HIPPA compliant, and GaHIN has made signing up as easy as 1, 2, 3.

Kickoff Meeting: We start with a brief phone conference. We will review goals to ensure you receive the most efficient implementation of GeorgiaDirect for your everyday workflow.
Form Submission: Filling out documents can be a daunting task, especially if you have policy or security questions. We'll go through each form with you to answer questions and save time.
GeorgiaDirect Training: Although GeorgiaDirect is similar to other email platforms such as Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook, we want to make sure that users understand the features of GeorgiaDirect, which includes the capability of being able to attach up to 40 care documents at a time.

Making sure that patient records are exchanged securely is vital in healthcare, and with GeorgiaDirect, GaHIN makes it as easy as 1, 2, 3. Get connected today.