Electronic Health Reporter

Fisher-Titus Medical Center announced today it signed up to use CommonWell Health Alliance services to enable healthcare providers to see patient health data from outside organizations within its Cerner electronic health record (EHR). Patients who receive care at its facilities will be able to give their doctors and nurses access to medical records from outside health care organizations that participate in CommonWell.

“Interoperability helps us advance our mission of providing safe, quality health care in a cost effective manner,” said John Britton, Fisher-Titus Medical Center vice president of Information Services. “The services provided by CommonWell give us a simple, patient-driven way to give our providers access to health information that can help them improve their ability to care for patients.”

By offering CommonWell services to its patients, Fisher-Titus is breaking through organizational and technological boundaries to advance interoperability and help patients give their care providers a more complete picture of their medical history. CommonWell services are expected to be live in July.

“Fisher-Titus is helping lead the charge for interoperability across health care,” said Bob Robke, CommonWell treasurer and Cerner vice president of Network Services. “Our organizations share a common belief that every person’s medical record should follow them, regardless of where they receive medical treatment or the type of EHR system that houses their records.”

CommonWell was founded by a group of health care IT suppliers committed to advancing interoperability by allowing different systems to work together in order to share patient health data with their care providers. The services offered by CommonWell address four of the key challenges in health care interoperability:

• Patient identification and linking – Assist health IT suppliers to more quickly and accurately identify patients as they transition through care facilities
• Record locator and retrieval – Help providers locate and access their patient records, regardless of where the encounter occurred, by providing a “virtual table of contents” that documents available data from each encounter location
• Patient access, privacy and consent management – Expected future capabilities include a patient-authorized means to simplify management of data sharing consents and authorizations
• Trusted data access – Provide authentication and auditing services that facilitate secure data sharing among member systems

Interoperability in health care enables organizations to share patient information regardless of organizational, geographic or technological boundaries. When people can securely share important medical information with providers, they can help improve care quality by giving providers a more complete picture of their medical history.

About Fisher-Titus Medical Center

Fisher-Titus Medical Center, located in Norwalk, Ohio, provides the north central Ohio region with the latest medical advancements and a full continuum of patient care, including a 99-bed acute care hospital with a Level 3 Trauma Center; a 69-bed skilled nursing facility; a 48-unit assisted living facility; a Home Health Center; and outpatient services. The Medical Center employs 950 area residents and was among Modern Healthcare Magazine’s Top 100 Best Places to Work in the U.S. three consecutive years.

Fisher-Titus Medical Center is known nationally for its high quality patient care having received numerous recognitions including the HealthGrades Outstanding Patient Experience Award and Leapfrog’s “A” Hospital Safety Score. The Medical Center is a fully accredited Chest Pain Center, certified as a Primary Stroke Center, and accredited by the Commission on Cancer.

In 2010 Fisher-Titus became the nation’s first all-digital “smart” community hospital after partnering with Cerner to implement a fully integrated electronic health record system including interactive technology in patient rooms. In 2012, 2013 and 2014, the Medical Center earned designation as one of the nation’s Most Wired Hospitals.

About CommonWell Health Alliance

CommonWell Health Alliance is a not-for-profit trade association of health IT companies working together to create universal access to health care data. The Alliance is open to all organizations that are committed to making patient’s data available to providers regardless of where care occurs. Alliance members support the belief that provider access to this data must be built into health information technologies at a reasonable cost for use by a broad range of health care providers and the populations and people they serve.

To learn more about CommonWell Health Alliance, please visit www.commonwellalliance.org, and read CommonWell Community blog. Also follow CommonWell on Twitter at @CommonWell, join us on CommonWell’s LinkedIn page, and like CommonWell’s Facebook page.

CommonWell Health Alliance and the CommonWell logo are licensed trademarks of CommonWell Health Alliance in the U.S. and other jurisdictions.