A WORD FROM JENN SEARLS:

The very best part of my job at Connie is to hear stories of when we make clinicians’ lives easier which lets them take care of patients, which is, after all, why they got into healthcare. 



TechTarget recently published an interview with Suzanne Doyon, the medical director of the Connecticut Poison Control Center. In this interview, Dr. Doyon highlights the many ways she and her staff are using Connie to help Connecticut residents who have a poison exposure event. I, for one, have not previously thought much about the work that the Center does.

In this interview, Dr. Doyon highlights the 100+ phone calls they receive a day from both Connecticut residents and hospitals treating residents who have a potential poisoning event.

Here are the three things I took away from the interview: 

• Connie improves the productivity and efficiency of both the Center’s staff as well as staff in the hospitals. By using Connie, the Poison Control Center has had a 50% drop in follow-up phone calls to hospitals – that means less time chasing hospital staff to get updates on patients – and more time taking care of patients who need help. 
• That productivity enhances the morale of the Center’s staff as they spend more time doing what they love to do and less time on the phone, on hold, or tracking down hospital staff. 
• Connie enhances care coordination between all the healthcare professionals caring for patients – the hospital staff, the Poison Control Center’s staff, and the patients’ primary care or pediatric staff – can all get updates in real time to help take care of patients. 

In Dr. Doyon’s words, Connie is a game changer. 

Speaking of games, congratulations to the UConn Women’s Basketball Team for their historic 12th national championship! Go Huskies! 

In this quarterly newsletter, you’ll learn about two enhancements to the Population Explorer tool – Preventive Services and Global Filters as well as a new feature – My Patient Summary; I hope they are game changers for you as you use Connie. Take a look and let me know if you’ve used these features yet and what you think.  

NEW PARTICIPANTS ARE JOINING CONNIE EVERY DAY!

We continue to establish connections with hundreds of participating organizations (POs) that securely exchange data for millions of Connecticut patients through Connie. We would like to highlight some of our recently onboarded partners who are actively sharing data via our Health Information Exchange, including our first dialysis organization, Fresenius Kidney Care facilities in all their Connecticut locations, Interim Healthcare, and Azalea Health. Be sure to explore the Connected Participating Organizations Dashboard to view our continuously growing list of connected organizations and discover the valuable data they contribute! 

MY PATIENT SUMMARY

At Connie, we are constantly improving our tools and services to provide our connected organizations with the best services possible to enhance patient care, and this April we rolled out My Patient Summary! 

My Patient Summary is an editable dashboard that you get to customize to quickly access the information you think is most valuable. It will save you time locating regularly viewed patient data within InContext. This new feature enables you to pin a unique tab and/or section containing self-selected priority data views, so that you can rapidly access the data most important to you - without the hassle of excess clicks and toggling through different data tabs.  

Learn more about what My Patient Summary can do for your organization by visiting Connie University or click this link! 

NEW EXPLORER FILTERING TOOLS AVAILABLE! 

We’re excited to highlight two powerful Explorer filtering tools to enhance your Connie experience: Preventive Services and Global Filters. Both filters will alert you to subsets of your patient population to support work in quality and patient care.  

Preventive Services Category is available in the Quick Filter to alert you to your patients with completed preventive screenings whenever they have received care. Using parameters in support of quality measures, the Preventive Services filter is designed to reduce the time it takes you to determine which of your patients have had preventative screenings. 

Currently, Preventive Services displays colorectal screening. We are working to include additional screenings like breast cancer screening and cervical cancer screening to allow a more comprehensive view of the patient’s screening health. 

Under your Saved Filters, global filters use a pre-defined set of diagnosis codes to identify patients experiencing certain encounters. Currently, a global filter is available for mental health follow-up, which will identify emergency department (ED) or inpatient encounters resulting from a patient’s mental health diagnosis. The global filter is based on ICD-10 diagnosis codes associated with the HEDIS Follow-Up After Emergency Department Visit for Mental Illness (FUM) and Follow-Up After Hospitalization for Mental Illness (FUH) measures.  

Have questions? Reach out to our team for more information: info@conniect.org

POPULATION EXPLORER TUTORIAL

Have you seen our new Population Explorer Tool video? This newly released video is a walkthrough tutorial of how to navigate Population Explorer and make the most of this amazing tool, narrated by Connie’s Clinical Applications Trainer, Erin Tyrol. Click the link below or visit Connie University to watch now! 

CONNECTICUT HOME AND COMMUNITY-BASED SERVICES PROGRAM TOOL

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of Connie’s new Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) Program Tool. The tool supports a DSS initiative that aims to create and sustain a value-based fee-for-service delivery model by providing whole-person care through incentive payments to HCBS providers based on defined outcomes. Our first group went live on March 3rd this year, and as of April 29th 161 organizations have access and are able to utilize the tool! 

The CT HCBS Program tool features a filterable worklist of your clients, detailed Snapshot of your clients’ progress related to DSS’s program goals, and a dashboard to track your organization’s performance. Check out the CT HCBS Program Tool page for a user guide, overview, and demo! 

CHECK OUT OUR LATEST PARTICIPANT TESTIMONIALS

"As a primary care provider I am constantly trying to review reports from outside sources. I use my link into Connie daily and on multiple patients. I use it most for hospital information for transitional care visits. However, for patients who are seeing consultants I can find the imaging reports and labs that may not have been included with the consultation note sent to me. On multiple times it has prevented me from duplicating lab work as I found it had been completed recently by another provider."

Marjorie Garrett, MD, Managing Partner | Heritage Internal Medicine Associates LLC

"Connie has allowed our therapy department to have quick access to the results of testing, x-rays, and the follow-up notes on specialty appointments such as an orthopedic or neurology appointment. It allows a clinician to know about a patient's weight bearing status immediately, and provide better appropriate care. Having access to Connie has helped our agency gather the 'full picture' about patients and their medical visits in order to provide comprehensive and complete care."

Bethany Heller, OTR/L, COS-C, Therapy Manager | Visiting Nurse and Health Services of Connecticut

Have you been keeping up with the Connie blog? Our blog showcases insights and updates on all things Connie monthly, including real world uses for Connie services and first-hand experiences from organizations, authored by the Connie team and guests.  

Don’t miss out on our three recent posts: 



• Population Explorer: A New Tool to Help Close Care Gaps in Connecticut
• Q&A With Jenn Searls, Executive Director on Connie’s 2024 Milestones and What She’s Most Excited for in 2025  
• Enhancing Behavioral Health Care: Connie’s Integration with TherapyNotes

Stay tuned for our next blog post, coming soon! 

UPCOMING WEBINARS FOR PROSPECTIVE AND CONNECTED ORGS!

Already Connected with Connie? Elevate Your Experience! Join Our FREE Webinar and Optimize Your User Experience!

Inviting all Connie-connected organizations to attend our free webinar! Join a Connie Account Manager as they walk us through the latest updates, portal demos, and live Q&A session. Although this webinar is hosted with connected and in-process organizations, everyone is encouraged to attend! 

REGISTER NOW

Not Yet Connected? Join Our FREE Webinar on the Power and Purpose of Connecting with Connie!

If you know a healthcare organization that hasn’t yet connected with Connie, share this free upcoming webinar, featuring steps to connect, overview, in-depth exploration of Connie’s core services, and a portal demonstration. This is an opportunity for healthcare organizations to discover how they can effortlessly enhance patient care through interoperable healthcare connectivity!

REGISTER NOW

CELEBRATING CONNIE ANNIVERSARIES

We’re so excited to commemorate the work anniversaries of three team members at Connie! We've asked Communications and Education manager Tiffany Magennis, Integrations Lead Traci Townsan, Director of Finance and Administration Gwen Reyes, Program Assistant for PO Relations/Outreach Melissa Shuster, and Director of Analytics and Data Quality Russel Dexter to share their thoughts and greatest lessons learned here. Thank you for all that you do! 

"I’m so grateful to celebrate four years of working with Connie and our incredible team! It’s been inspiring to be part of Connie as it continues to evolve, and I’m proud to be part of a team that cares so deeply about its mission."  

“Another year of growth, challenges, and accomplishments at Connie. I want to thank my colleagues and the leadership team for their continuous support and for making this a great place to work. I’m looking forward to another year of learning, contributing, and achieving together!” 

“After four years at Connie I can say that there is no shortage of opportunities to learn here. Connie works continually to diversify its offerings to support improving the health of the CT population. I’m excited to see what innovative solutions Connie comes up with next!” 

“I have learned so much in my 2 years at Connie. It has been so wonderful to see the positive impact that an HIE has on patient care. Being a part of this team has shown me that teamwork really does make the dream work!” 

"I am grateful to be working for Connie and for the opportunity it has provided me to grow, collaborate, and contribute. I have enjoyed working with the talented and dedicated staff at both Connie and CRISP Shared Services, and with organizations across the healthcare continuum to facilitate the sharing of health data for the purpose of reducing care fragmentation and improving health outcomes."  

YOUR OPINION MATTERS!

If you're a regular Connie user and would like to provide us with some feedback on our current services, we would love to hear from you! Please take 2 minutes to complete our survey below. THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!