San Luis Valley Regional Medical Center to 'Go Live' on the HIE

San Luis Valley Community to Benefit From Enhanced Care with the CORHIO Network

San Luis Regional Valley Medical Center, the largest medical facility in the San Luis Valley with 59 beds and a Level IV Trauma Center, will "go live" on CORHIO's health information exchange (HIE) next month.

San Luis Regional Valley Medical Center is located in rural southern Colorado and serves six counties with a population of more than 45,000. The facility receives many referrals from smaller hospitals in the region and often transfers patients to the Front Range and Denver.

"Due to our location, many of our patients receive care in multiple locations," said San Luis Regional Valley Medical Center CEO, Russ Johnson. "The HIE will ensure that accurate clinical data is going back and forth between providers across the state. It allows the members of our community to get their care locally with certainty that their information will go with them."

SLVRMC works closely with two large clinics in the valley, including the San Luis Valley Comprehensive Community Mental Health Center.

HIE in San Luis Valley Helps Behavioral & Physical Health Providers Coordinate Care

"We've found that patient outcomes are greatly influenced by their behavioral health, so I'm happy that the San Luis Comprehensive Community Mental Health Center is a part of the HIE," said Mary Trujillo-Young, PHD, assistant executive director of San Luis Valley Comprehensive Community Mental Health Center. "As a community, we are all invested in providing quality, cost effective services for our patients. This [HIE] allows for quicker referrals, a decrease in duplication of costly procedures and a reduction in medication errors."

As of June 22nd, there are 45 health care provider organizations participating in CORHIO's network, which provides a structure to enhance and facilitate patient care. By connecting to the HIE, physicians, hospitals and other health care providers can improve care coordination, reduce medical errors and cut administrative costs.

"When we share our information better and we communicate better as clinicians, then we provide a higher level of customer service to our patients," said Johnson. "They feel better taken care of and they don't have to worry about us making the kind of mistake that can occur when the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing."