Carefx Portal Solution to Deliver First Time, Statewide Access to Patient Data Among Hospitals in the LSU Network

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Feb. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Physicians and other medical professionals will be able to access patient information across the 10 rural and metropolitan hospitals in the Louisiana State University health system with the implementation of Fusionfx, an interoperable clinical workflow solution from Carefx Corporation.  

Based at the LSU Health Sciences Center – Shreveport, the portal solution, which LSU calls LSU HealthLink, will aggregate information from two separate data centers and several different applications that support the LSU hospital network.  The portal-based view of patient data streamlines the way LSU’s more than 1,700 physicians and 1,100 residents and fellows access, interact with and share patient data, helping reduce errors,  increase productivity and improve patient care.

“The ability to exchange data between clinicians and between hospitals is extremely important for achieving meaningful use of patient information,” said Andrew Hurd, Chairman and CEO of Carefx, a leading provider of interoperable workflow solutions.  “By closing the gaps among various information systems and providing access to patient information through a single, integrated portal, the care providers at LSU are able to offer a more consistent, higher quality patient experience.”

LSU HealthLink, already fully implemented in the Emergency Care Center of the LSU Hospital in Shreveport, allows clinicians to access patient information from the separate data repositories in the LSU Health System and will bring relevant data from Siemens LCR, Allscripts, LSU’s CLIQ and others into a unified portal experience.  

“Greater access to patient data allows our physicians to obtain a complete picture of a patient’s medical history, therefore aiding them in their medical decision-making and providing more time-effective care,” said Dr. Tom Arnold, Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the academic health sciences center and Medical Director of the LSU Hospital’s Emergency Care Center, which is the receiving point for the hospital’s Level I Trauma Center.  “Implementing this portal in the LSU’s emergency department has already been of great benefit to our providers and patients.”

The LSU project with Carefx is an expansion of electronic health record (EHR) accessibility among Louisiana hospitals that began with the state-funded Louisiana Rural Health Information Exchange (LAHRIX) initiative in 2008.  Using Fusionfx, LARHIX now provides real-time electronic data exchange for the teleconsultation services linking rural hospitals in North Louisiana with LSU Health Sciences Center at Shreveport.

“LSU HealthLink is most certainly an example of what could happen in the rest of the state,” said Dr. Lee Bairnsfather, CIO of LSU Health Sciences Center.  “As a state whose medical system has been adversely affected by natural disasters more than once, patients in Louisiana would benefit immensely from an interoperability platform, making portable the data among the various electronic medical systems in the state.  Given Carefx’s innovative and scalable technology, this is very possible.  The Carefx system will help us achieve meaningful use of our patient data.”

Moving forward, officials believe that patient data in the LAHRIX clinical portal and LSU Healthlink will be integrated seamlessly into a comprehensive internet accessible information exchange.  This integration will improve access to critical patient data for thousands of clinicians as they serve a combined patient population of more than one million Louisiana residents.

About Carefx Corporation

Carefx supports healthcare organizations in achieving their vision of advancing the quality and safety of patient care delivery through its Fusionfx suite of interoperable workflow solutions.  Fusionfx streamlines and simplifies clinical and business workflow and connects care providers to the information they need – where, when, and how they need it.  By managing care transitions and information gaps between diverse systems, departments and facilities, Fusionfx delivers crucial patient information with speed, efficiency and logic.  Carefx supports more than 700 hospitals, health systems, regional health information organizations (RHIOs) and health information exchanges (HIEs) across North America and Europe.

For more information, visit www.carefx.com, or contact Carefx at (480) 833-5010 or by email at [email protected].  

About the Louisiana State University Health System

An integral part of Louisiana’s statewide public education system, the Louisiana State University Health System encompasses education and training of healthcare providers and biomedical researchers through postdoctoral levels as well as delivery of direct patient care through its 10 hospitals located throughout Louisiana. The LSU Health System is composed of three distinct institutions:  Health Sciences Center at New Orleans, composed of six healthcare professions schools; the Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, composed of three healthcare professions schools and three teaching hospitals in North Louisiana; and the Health Care Services Division, composed of seven hospitals in South Louisiana.

SOURCE Carefx