Northern Adirondack Health Exchange

Grantee Name

Adirondack Medical Center

Funding Area

Special Projects Fund

Publication Date

June 2012

Grant Amount

$138,700

Grant Date:

November 2007–October 2009

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To improve health care on an individual and community level, Health Information Technology (HIT) systems were fine-tuned for the northern Adirondack Region.

Specifically, a health exchange was established for Trudeau Health Systems and Adirondack Medical Center, with support from NYHealth. This communitywide electronic medical record (EMR) integration enabled these providers to create a comprehensive health record for patients across all of their organizations in this rural region—shared records where multiple service area providers could access pre-selected, pertinent patient health information, add information, and use the EMR to treat patients. Thus, the Health Exchange (the Exchange) has allowed area health care providers to view and update shared patients’ medical records, allowing for more efficient patient care.

Outcomes and Lessons Learned

Purchased and installed software to link providers with existing EMRs, and completed integration of a new communitywide EMR system.
Established a comprehensive exchange with Trudeau Health Systems that served to connect various physician practices and hospitals that already had EMR in the northern Adirondack Region, which is defined as the health care community serving Northern Essex and Southern Franklin Counties in New York State (the Tri-Lakes Region).
Encouraged 17 of the 19 primary care physicians in the Tri-Lakes Region to use EMR and contribute to the Exchange.
Allowed for patient summaries to be generated by the Exchange, which comprise contributions from both primary care and specialty providers.
Improved the speed and quality of health care, preventive care and screenings, clinical outcomes, and office efficiency—facilitated cost savings for the rural practices.
Avoided barriers commonly encountered in implementing HIT.

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