Cloud-based IT company and CommonWell Health Alliance member Brightree is extending access to the interoperability network to its customer base of hospice and home health providers.

WHY IT MATTERS
In a move that will help bridge the gap between out-of-hospital care providers and the broader care ecosystem, Brightree says the partnership will give those customers with access to more than 50,000 provider locations and health systems nationwide.

Through CommonWell, Brightree customers can retrieve documents and data from a patient's previous hospital and physician visits within their electronic health record workflows.

Instead of home health and hospice agencies having to obtain patient health data manually from each of a patient's other care providers, CommonWell allows agencies to share patient updates with physicians and other providers in the CommonWell network serving that patient.

Starting later this month, Brightree's home health and hospice customers can access the CommonWell network, which aims to provide a better experience more efficiently. Fluid data exchange is widely seen as critical to successful patient management across a system of care.

The alliance was founded on the shared belief that to drive better patient care and improve health outcomes, practitioners need to connect as many care locations as possible across all care settings.

A forthcoming Brightree survey found 60 percent of referring providers said they would select a post-acute care delivery partner based on their ability to interoperate with the referral source.

THE LARGER TREND
In February, CommonWell launched the Connector program, which offers access to the data exchange network for care providers and electronic health records that may not necessarily be CommonWell members.

The organization will enable certified Connectors to minimally pass-through its flow-down terms to their connected EMRs, while enabling those Connectors to include additional services, as needed by their customers.

CommonWell formally announced the connection of the CommonWell network to Carequality a consensus-built common interoperability framework in November 2018.

Since the Carequality connection went live in July 2018, CommonWell-enabled providers have bilaterally exchanged more than 750,000 documents with providers locally and nationwide, according to a February blog post written by Nick Knowlton, Brightree vice president of business development and CommonWell board vice chair.

ON THE RECORD
"Our mission is to break down longtime technological and process barriers so individuals and caregivers can access important health data efficiently, affordably and securely," Jitin Asnaani, executive director of CommonWell Health Alliance, said in a statement.

"What this amounts to is a smoother journey for patients moving from care setting to care setting, which is traditionally difficult to navigate," added Knowlton.

Nathan Eddy is a healthcare and technology freelancer based in Berlin.

Email the writer: nathaneddy@gmail.com

Twitter: @dropdeaded209 

Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.