SCL Health System Now Connected to CORHIO HIE

Good Samaritan Medical Center, Lutheran Medical Center and Saint Joseph Hospital have joined 32 other hospitals across Colorado to improve care coordination.

SCL Health System’s three Front Range hospitals have recently connected to the CORHIO health information exchange (HIE) network. Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette, Lutheran Medical Center in Wheat Ridge and Saint Joseph Hospital in Denver combined provide care to more than 100,000 patients per year.

SCL Health System (Exempla) is currently sending admit, discharge and transfer (ADT) information and radiology and transcription data to CORHIO. In a few weeks, pathology information will be added, and later this fall, lab results will be transmitted into the CORHIO network. It is unusual for a hospital to connect to CORHIO without sending lab information from the beginning, however due to strategic technology plans in place at SCL Health System, the lab information could not be included in the initial HIE connection phase.

"A significant percentage of residents in north Denver and the northwest suburbs rely heavily on SCL Health System for their medical needs and we are thrilled that their patients will now benefit from the CORHIO network," says Morgan Honea, executive director at CORHIO. “This accomplishment, along with other works in progress, have us well on our way toward 100-percent coverage for acute-care hospitalization data in the greater Denver-Boulder area.”

CORHIO Connection to Replace Point-to-Point Interfaces

A few dozen Denver-area physician practices currently have point-to-point connections—or “interfaces”—with SCL Health System hospitals, and over the next six to nine months, those will be gradually be transitioned to CORHIO interfaces. When the timing is appropriate, practices with these connections will be contacted by both SCL Health System and CORHIO to schedule the interface transitions.

If you work for a provider office and your patients visit Good Samaritan Medical Center, Lutheran Medical Center or Saint Joseph Hospital, contact CORHIO to learn more about receiving real-time information on their hospitalizations and test results directly into your electronic health record (EHR) or via the CORHIO secure Web-based portal PatientCare 360^®.