Surescripts, a national health information network, announced the addition of several new major hospital and health systems to its health information exchange, which now totals more than 100 health systems using a variety of EHR platforms in an attempt to achieve the elusive status of true interoperability.
The following systems recently signed on with Surescrpits: Geisinger, Mount Sinai, Vanderbilt, Texas Health Resources , Buffalo Medical Group, MaineHealth, St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center of Syracuse, N.Y. , University of Rochester Medical Center and UW Medicine, Valley Medical Center.
In addition to the hospital systems, Surescrpits also said CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid and Safeway will partner with the company to electronically report immunization records to state and regional public health organizations that will cover 88 percent of the U.S. population.
Collectively, the added partners represent a massive expansion for healthcare interoperability, according to Virginia-based Surescripts. As a result of the expansion, “ public health officials nationwide will have a vastly more timely and accurate view of public health,” the company said, adding it “will directly impact public health experts’ ability to manage the flu and other outbreaks of disease among all ages of the population, including children.”
All told, Surescrpits said its clinical messaging capabilities are now used by more than 2,000 provider organizations, including 130 health systems representing 971 hospitals and more than 18 percent of all staffed beds in the country, as well as 23 HIEs and health information service providers.
Surescripts started in 2001 as a network of pharmacies that sought to help the electronic exchange of prescriptions. Now, with the addition of health systems and other providers, the company says its network can securely send and receive authenticated, encrypted health information directly between one another.
