HIMSS Presentation Demonstrates How Partnership with an HIE Expands Access to Advance Directives

Grand Rapids, MI – The 2018 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Annual Conference & Exhibition breakout presentation, “Expanding Access to Advanced Care Plans with Health Information Exchange” will identify the opportunities and challenges involved in launching and operating a community-based approach to Advance Care Planning.

Research shows that Advance Care Planning (ACP) significantly improves positive outcomes; including increased compliance with patient wishes, reduced hospitalization at end-of-life, improved quality of life, and lower costs associated with end-of-life care. ACP involves an individual communicating and documenting their wishes for medical care at the end of life in the event that they are incapacitated. This information is documented in an Advance Directive.

Through partnership with Great Lakes Health Connect (GLHC), Making Choices Michigan (MCM) can make Advance Directives accessible to care providers at the point of care throughout Michigan.

Presenters, Carol Robinson, DNP, MS, BSN, RN, CHPN, Community Coordinator of MCM, and Doug Dietzman, Executive Director of GLHC, will explore the benefits of “having the difficult conversation” that prompts the creation of an Advance Directive, and will highlight the advantages and value of leveraging a health information exchange for storage and retrieval of this information at the point of care.

March 7, 2018 | 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM (PST)
Venetian Convention Center, Palazzo B | Session #124

Making Choices Michigan (MCM), a non-profit, moves the ACP conversation from the healthcare environment into the community. In 2017, MCM aligned itself with GLHC, the leading health information exchange in Michigan, to more efficiently store Advance Directives in GLHC’s Virtual Integrated Patient Record (VIPR). VIPR is a cloud-based storage and retrieval system connecting over 85% of acute-care beds in Michigan. This resource offers individuals some assurance that their Advanced Directive will be available in their time of need.

Presentation Objectives:
• Define the value and benefits of Advance Care Planning for Individuals and Population Health?
• Examine the challenges and barriers involved in gaining broad adoption of personal Advance Care Plans
• Identify the four main components of a successful, freestanding, community-based ACP program
• Demonstrate the value and advantages for patients and providers of leveraging health information exchange for the electronic storage and retrieval of Advance Directive documents

This will be the third consecutive year that GLHC has presented at the HIMSS conference.

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About Making Choices Michigan
Making Choices Michigan, established in 2010, is a 501(c)(3) registered non-profit, community collaborative committed to helping people determine their end-of-life preferences, documenting those preferences in an advance directive (AD), developing a system for storing and retrieving the AD, and educating the healthcare community to honor a person’s AD to ensure that end-of-life preferences are respected.

About Great Lakes Health Connect
Great Lakes Health Connect (GLHC) is among the leading providers of health information exchange services in the nation. Based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, GLHC seamlessly and securely facilitates the transmission of more than a billion messages annually between 129 hospitals and over 4,000 primary, specialty, and allied care provider offices across the state. The community-based nonprofit is dedicated to improving the quality and accessibility of healthcare information by creating care-connected communities across Michigan and beyond. For more information, visit www.gl-hc.org.

About 2018 HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition
The 2018 HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition, March 5–9, 2018 in Las Vegas, brings together 45,000+ professionals from around the world for five days of education, innovation and collaboration to help uncover the promise of health information and technology. No other conference brings together world-class education, cutting-edge products and solutions, and unique networking opportunities needed to solve the biggest health information and technology challenges – all at one time, all in one place. Choose from 300+ education sessions, 1,300+ vendors, hundreds of special programs, and endless networking events. HIMSS18: Where the World Connects for Health.


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