The Illinois Health Information Exchange has connected Near North Health Service Corporation, Erie Family Health Center, Heartland Health Outreach, Howard Brown Health Center and PCC Wellness to its electronic health records exchange service, ILHIE Connect.

The providers are paving the way as active users of health information technology to improve care coordination for patients in underserved communities, Raul Recarey, ILHIE executive director said in making the announcement.

"We are delighted to see community health centers take the lead and become early adopters of health information exchange services," Recarey said. "Their forward-thinking approach demonstrates their firm commitment to providing the highest quality healthcare to the populations they serve."

[See also: HIE reduces repeat imaging in the ER.]

"The health IT innovators connecting to ILHIE Connect contribute greatly to the development of our statewide network," Recarey added. "As more healthcare providers are able to exchange patient records with organizations such as these, we will start to see a positive impact on patient care and outcomes."

Through the ILHIE Connect service, a secure, electronic health record request and retrieval service, providers can view an aggregated patient record that includes information from multiple clinical sites. As Recarey sees it, gives care providers information at the point of care that they need to make better informed decisions. Connecting to ILHIE Connect also helps providers achieve Stage 2 meaningful use in 2014 and be well prepared for Stage 3 meaningful use.

The Alliance of Chicago partnered with ILHIE to assist these and other community-based service providers in onboarding to ILHIE Connect.

[See also: McKesson, Meditech to test data exchange.]

"The Health Centers participating in the Alliance share a vision for the use of health IT to improve healthcare and outcomes, and appreciate the valuable role that health information exchange plays," Fred Rachman, MD, CEO of the Alliance of Chicago, said in a statement. "We are all proud to be early participants in supporting the vital infrastructure that ILHIE Connect is building."

ILHIE aims to promote better care coordination among providers, reduce medical errors and duplicative services and improve health outcomes.

One of ILHIE’s core objectives, Recarey said, is to connect healthcare providers in underserved communities. It provides critical infrastructure for Illinois' Medicaid care coordination efforts and the state's healthcare transformation agenda.