“Cincinnati is Doing It. You Can Too.”

So reads the cover of the July 2005 issue of HealthLeaders, a national trade magazine. The cover article, entitled “Sharing the Data Bridge,” profiled Collaborative subsidiary HealthBridge, the first self-sustaining and largest regional health information organization (RHIO) in the United States, and confirmed HealthBridge’s national status as the industry leader for this ever-evolving technology.

The distance traveled is no less than remarkable. In less than a decade, the HealthBridge project took the idea of “exchangeable data” from a mere cutting-edge concept to a vast online network that works with participating health care stakeholders to facilitate creation of an integrated and interoperable community health care system.

Through the HealthBridge network, physicians can access test results much faster than the traditional method of receiving paper clinical reports. This, in turn, improves the quality and efficiency of community-wide health care.

The HealthBridge network is comprised of 18 area hospitals and represents nearly 90 percent of the community’s hospital sector activity. HealthBridge also connects thousands of physicians and staff, as well as nursing homes, independent labs, radiology centers and others in our healthcare community.

HealthBridge provides access to more than 60 hospital-based critical care systems, including radiology images, fetal heart monitoring, hospital-based electronic medical records and chart completion, among others. Moreover, through its clinical messaging system, HealthBridge delivers more than 1.4 million results to more than 4,000 physicians each month.

Taking It National. . .

As the vanguard in the field of exchangeable data, in 2005 HealthBridge was selected by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to participate in the development of a data infrastructure to create the American Health Information Community. This nationwide health information network will enable nationwide transition of electronic health records.

“We’re honored to be selected for this project, which will begin the process of building a national health care infrastructure,” said Robert Steffel, HealthBridge executive director. “We’re excited that our community’s years of key learnings will be leveraged nationwide.”

As a participant, HealthBridge will work with Northrop Grumman and other consortium members to develop a non-proprietary, standards-based open architecture that will leverage and extend the functionality of existing local and regional health information networks, providing a common, scalable approach to national interoperability and information exchange.

Continuing to Grow

Although already a national model, the HealthBridge network continues to grow, enhance services, and gain national attention.

• In the past few months HealthBridge has developed its ability to send out multiple test results. This was in direct response to physician offices’ requests to condense the number of reports that print when utilizing HealthBridge. Currently, Alliance Laboratory Services, TriHealth and St. Elizabeth Medical Center are providing multiple lab results through the HealthBridge Clincal Messaging system.
• HealthBridge recently ordered a new disk storage array that will immediately increase available disk capacity by 12 times. For customers, the new disk storage capacity will mean faster data access times; no system slowdown or unavailability due to tape backup procedures; no system slowdown due to database rebuild tasks; and the ability to store health system clinical databases with no data purges.
• HealthBridge continues to be noticed as a trailblazer in the national press. In addition to the HealthLeaders cover article, HealthBridge has garnered coverage in the following national publications:
• Healthcare Informatics
• Hospitals and Health Networks (100 Most Wired)
• Health Data Management
• Inside Healthcare Computing
• For the Record
• HealthBridge and area health departments have expanded the Physician Communication Link (PCL) system. In 2005, HealthBridge added the option of having notification of a health event sent to physicians’ e-mail boxes, so that physicians can become of health alerts where they practice.

For more information on HealthBridge, contact Robert Steffel at (513) 469-7222 or e-mail him at rsteffel@healthbridge.org.