North Carolina Hospitals, Medical Society and Thomson Reuters Lay Groundwork for a Statewide Healthcare Information Exchange that Supports Meaningful Use

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Aug. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- The North Carolina Hospital Association (NCHA) and The North Carolina Medical Society (NCMS) along with Moses Cone Health System and WakeMed Health & Hospitals, today announced they are working with Thomson Reuters and CareEvolution to develop and launch the North Carolina Healthcare Information Exchange (NCHEX).

NCHEX will allow physicians to assemble a "continuity of care" record for each patient, comprising the patient's clinical information from all of the providers participating in the exchange. This enhanced patient information will enable better quality and more efficient patient care. 

NCHEX, which is launching with seven hospitals, three freestanding emergency departments and 57 physician practices, is the first step towards a statewide health information exchange (HIE) for North Carolina. It meets all the criteria for an HIE outlined in the ARRA HITECH Act for Meaningful Use.

The exchange will be open to all North Carolina healthcare providers and will actively seek to connect with existing regional health information organizations, health information exchanges, and healthcare information technology systems by leveraging Nationwide Health Information Network Connect and other HIE standards. Organizations interested in joining NCHEX or seeking additional information can visit www.nchex.net.

To reduce costs and implementation time, NCHEX will be built on the infrastructure developed for the North Carolina Hospital Emergency Surveillance System (NCHESS). The NCHA and the North Carolina Department of Public Health developed NCHESS in 2004 to capture real-time clinical data from 114 hospital information systems across North Carolina.

About Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters is the world's leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals.  We combine industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver critical information to leading decision makers in the financial, legal, tax and accounting, healthcare and science and media markets, powered by the world's most trusted news organization.  With headquarters in New York and major operations in London and Eagan, Minnesota, Thomson Reuters employs 55,000 people and operates in over 100 countries. For more information, please visit www.thomsonreuters.com.

About CareEvolution

CareEvolution is a leading provider of secure interoperability solutions. HIEBus™, its health information exchange (HIE) technology platform is a robust Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) to enable heterogeneous underlying legacy health IT applications to "share" clinical information in a secure, reliable, and incremental manner. Distinct component such as Identity Management, Record Location, Clinical Data Integration, Audit & Log, Data Persistence, Visualization, Terminology, and Data Mining may be adopted piecemeal or as a comprehensive technology platform.  For more information, please visit www.careevolution.com.

About The North Carolina Hospital Association

NCHA is statewide trade association, established in 1918, representing 135 hospitals and health networks. The association promotes improved community health status and delivery of quality healthcare through leadership, information, education, and advocacy in members' interests and for public benefit.  For more information, please visit www.ncha.org.

About The North Carolina Medical Society

The North Carolina Medical Society was established in 1849 and today has over 11,000 members. As the largest physician organization in the state, it devotes itself to representing the interests of physicians and protecting the quality of patient care.  For more information, please visit www.ncmedsoc.org.

About Moses Cone Health System

Moses Cone Health System is a Greensboro based, not-for-profit health system consisting of The Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital, Wesley Long Community Hospital, The Women's Hospital of Greensboro, Annie Penn Hospital, Moses Cone Behavioral Health Center, MedCenter High Point, MedCenter Kernersville, LeBauer Healthcare and various outpatient clinics and physician practices. Moses Cone Health System provided $125.4 million in uncompensated care in FY 2009 to the people of Guilford, Rockingham, Forsyth, Randolph and Alamance Counties.  For more information, please visit www.mosescone.com.

About WakeMed Health & Hospitals

WakeMed Health & Hospitals, one of the first hospital systems in the country, is a private, not-for-profit health care organization based in Raleigh, N.C.  The 870-bed system comprises a network of health care facilities throughout Wake and Johnston Counties, including: a Level I Trauma Center and tertiary referral hospital and rehabilitation hospital in Raleigh, a community hospital in Cary, comprehensive outpatient centers and freestanding emergency departments in North Raleigh and Apex, seven outpatient rehabilitation sites, two skilled-nursing and outpatient facilities, a 100+-physician multispecialty practice, and home health services. WakeMed's team of 7,750 employees, including but not limited to nurses, technologists and medical support staff, 1,000 volunteers and more than 1,000 affiliated physicians serve the residents of North Carolina using the most advanced technologies and facilities to ensure the finest in health care.  For more information, please visit www.wakemed.org.

SOURCE Thomson Reuters