The Health Information Exchange of Montana will build a unified electronic health record by consolidating patient data from different treatment settings into a single-source.

The HIEM plans to use technology created by Nashville, Tenn.-based Informatics Corporation of America. ICA's A3Align Solution will be the backbone of the new system, officials said, providing community clinicians with a single technology solution for accessing, evaluating and acting upon patient information across disparate systems.

"By providing seamless access to clinical data, we expect to see a reduction in costs resulting from improved service and the elimination of manual patient data transmissions," said John Maher, a founding board member and chairman of the HIEM. "Within six months, we anticipate having a single point of access for all clinical information, with significant improvements in patient and physician satisfaction levels."

The HIEM encompasses six hospitals and 25 clinics, including the Northwest Healthcare system, covering 45,000 square miles in western Montana.

In the initial phase of the agreement, ICA will aggregate patient information into a single, Web-based solution. Maher said a representative set of source systems includes Meditech, Iatric Systems, SoftMed, MIDAS+, ImageNow, eClinicalWorks, ChartBuilder, and FileMaker.

"Where gaps in current systems exist, ICA provides tools that allow for data capture and enables efficient communication across the various facilities in our region," said Maher. "We also plan to incorporate ICA's wellness and disease dashboards into our community-wide EHR, facilitating proactive management of key disease states such as diabetes and CHF."

Healthcare resources in western Montana are widely dispersed, Maher said, and predicted that these advancements would help to ensure quality care throughout the region.

Practicing physicians and informatics professionals at Nashville's Vanderbilt Medical Center developed the ICA A3Align Solution over the course of 15 years. The software has been deployed in the Mid-South eHealth Alliance, a successful health information exchange in western Tennessee that has been operational across nine organizations and over 40 facilities since the summer of 2006.

ICA representatives also noted that an enterprise implementation has been live since January 2007 at Bassett Healthcare's four hospitals and 27 clinics in Cooperstown, N.Y.

"We are pleased to be chosen for this important initiative which showcases the flexibility of our technology as both an enterprise and an HIE solution," said Gary Zegiestowsky, CEO of ICA. "ICA's phased approach optimizes time to value, makes physicians' lives easier, and provides a foundation for community-based care."

Does your health information exchange have a unique solution to technology challenges? Send your comments to Richard Pizzi at richard.pizzi@medtechpublishing.com.