News Releases

Health Information Exchange Kicking Off Efforts in Northeast Ohio

The Ohio Health Information Partnership (OHIP) is seeking to get the ball rolling on Northeast Ohio’s participation in the statewide health information exchange. Late last month, The Center for Health Affairs hosted a meeting between OHIP executives and the chief information officers and other information services professionals at The Center’s member hospitals. OHIP is the entity founded by the Ohio Hospital Association, Ohio State Medical Association, BioOhio and the Ohio Osteopathic Association and selected by then-Governor Ted Strickland to oversee the implementation of a statewide health information exchange.

Medicitywas selected in May as the vendor to create the technological infrastructure for the exchange, which has been named CliniSync. OHIP is working at a regional level with hospitals regarding the adoption of the exchange within their communities. Statewide, three agreements representing 10 health systems so far have been signed.  OHIP is also working with Regional Extension Centers (REC) to assist in increasing physician adoption of electronic health records. In Northeast Ohio, the REC is Case Western Reserve University. To date, just over 60 percent – or about 1,100 out of 1,765 – of practices are on board.

The purpose of the August meeting was to catch the Northeast Ohio hospital group up on what has been happening with the exchange, to introduce them to Medicity and to set in motion the process for developing an exchange in our region. OHIP and the Ohio Hospital Association are looking to the exchange as an opportunity to decrease the costs associated with providing care, particularly now in the face of potential cuts that could result from the activities of the congressional super committee working on debt reduction.

The Center will be engaging in future discussions with OHIP regarding the rollout of this initiative in Northeast Ohio and any potential role this organization might take on. For questions or feedback, please contact Bill Ryan at 216.255.3600 or bill.ryan@chanet.org.