Electronic Health Reporter

Wood County Hospital announced today it signed up to use CommonWell Health Alliance services to enable health care 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.

“CommonWell Health Alliance gives us another opportunity to reach out to other health care organizations to connect the care our patients receive in a cost-effective manner,” said Stan Korducki, president and CEO of Wood County Hospital.

By offering CommonWell services to its patients, Wood County Hospital 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 by this summer.

“Wood County Hospital 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 Wood County Hospital

Wood County Hospital was founded in 1951 with support from the Wood County community. Wood County residents believed so much in the hospital back then; they played a key role in its early development. They sold blankets, went door-to-door asking for donations, held bazaars, and even sold a heifer to generate funds to make sure those early years were healthy.

The trust and respect that has accrued over its lifetime is built on a tradition of “being there” for Wood and Henry County residents – in good times and bad – 24 hours-a-day, 7 days-a-week. There is no time when you could ask for help that it would not be there for you.

Today, with over 700 individuals employed, the Hospital is proud to be a valuable resource, ready to serve our community. We believe the strength of the community lies in having excellent health care close to home, with neighbors caring for neighbors. We’re proud to say that our community can depend on us.

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.

About Cerner

Cerner’s health information technologies connect people, information and systems at more than 18,000 facilities worldwide. Recognized for innovation, Cerner solutions assist clinicians in making care decisions and enable organizations to manage the health of populations. The company also offers an integrated clinical and financial system to help health care organizations manage revenue, as well as a wide range of services to support clients’ clinical, financial and operational needs. Cerner’s mission is to contribute to the improvement of health care delivery and the health of communities. Nasdaq: CERN. For more information about Cerner, visit cerner.com, read our blog at cerner.com/blog, connect with us on Twitter at twitter.com/cerner and on Facebook at facebook.com/cerner.

As of February 2, 2015, Cerner Corporation acquired Siemens Health Services. Certain trademarks, service marks and logos set forth herein are property of Cerner Corporation and/or its subsidiaries. All other non-Cerner marks are the property of their respective owners.