Ohio’s CliniSync Health Information Exchange (HIE) has announced the signing of the 25-bed Harrison Community Hospital in Cadiz as well as the 91-bed Wilson Memorial Hospital in Sidney, bringing the number of Ohio hospitals in the CliniSync statewide HIE to 101.

CliniSync is run by the non-profit Ohio Health Information Partnership and powered by Medicity, a Salt Lake City, Utah-based provider of HIE technology. CliniSync allows facilities and practices with different electronic health record (EHR) systems to directly communicate with one another. Previously, some physicians and hospitals could already electronically share patient information regionally or within their own systems, but the CliniSync exchange is statewide, crossing over the boundaries of hospital walls and health systems. 

CliniSync initially received $14.9 million in federal grant monies from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). In Ohio, the CliniSync HIE covers 77 out of Ohio’s 88 counties with a potential network of 142 hospitals while HealthBridge, a Cincinnati-based regional HIE, connects the remaining southwestern Ohio counties and crosses over into Kentucky and Indiana, connecting 30 hospitals and 7,500 physicians. CliniSync and HealthBridge now share federal Direct protocols with one another so that physicians can communicate across the HIEs.

Through federal funding, CliniSync offers software powered by Medicity at no charge to practices, allowing them to share information with other CliniSync providers so they can send and receive secure, encrypted emails, can refer patients to one another with a management tool, and can receive results and reports directly from hospitals participating in CliniSync. These reports and results include laboratory results (general chemistry, microbiology, blood bank and pathology), as well as radiology and other transcribed reports (care summaries, history and physicals and progress notes).

While we’re excited by our rapid progress and the collaboration of Ohio’s hospitals and medical community, we’re even more enthusiastic about what this exchange means for the care of Ohio’s patients,” Dan Paoletti, CEO of the Ohio Health Information Partnership, said in a statement. “When physicians and clinicians can electronically talk with one another—no matter where their patient is treated—the potential for improved care, faster and more effective treatment, and better coordination among treating physicians and facilities can occur.”