Puerto Rico Health Information Exchange Commits to Joining Prospective Health Gorilla Qualified Health Information Network

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Feb. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Health Gorilla today announced that the Puerto Rico Health Information Exchange (PRHIE) intends to participate in Health Gorilla's anticipated Qualified Health Information Network (QHIN). Health Gorilla's QHIN application was approved by the Recognized Coordinating Entity (RCE), and announced at a celebratory event in Washington, D.C., on February 13, 2023. Health Gorilla will now begin the onboarding process, which must be successfully completed in order to be designated as a QHIN.

Health Gorilla is the health information exchange platform for the Puerto Rico Department of Health (PRDOH), facilitating trusted data exchange for more than 430 care sites, 70 hospitals, and more than 9,000 providers. The collaboration includes connections among government agencies, pharmacies, diagnostic laboratories, claims clearinghouses, public registries, and health technology companies, ensuring a robust and secure environment for healthcare innovation and patient care in Puerto Rico.

"As healthcare organizations seek secure, compliant ways of participating in national health data exchange, Health Gorilla is dedicated to meeting their needs," said Steve Yaskin, CEO and co-founder of Health Gorilla. "With our QHIN application officially approved, we are proud to have the Puerto Rico Department of Health on board."

"Making patient health information more readily available to medical professionals has improved the quality of patient care throughout Puerto Rico," said Alexander Quevedo, State HIT Coordinator at Puerto Rico Department of Health. "We were thrilled to hear about Health Gorilla's application approval, and we look forward to participating in Health Gorilla's QHIN if designated."

Part of the 21^st Century Cures Act, TEFCA will create a national floor for interoperability across the United States, enabling more streamlined health data exchange. The Sequoia Project, which was designated by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) as TEFCA's Recognized Coordinating Entity (RCE), recently announced Health Gorilla as one of the first set of applicant networks to be approved for onboarding as a prospective Qualified Health Information Network.

With the application approval, Health Gorilla successfully fulfilled the governance, functional, and operational requirements for approval to serve as a QHIN under TEFCA and must now complete testing and onboarding before moving forward in the process toward official designation later this year.

Once QHINs are fully implemented, Health Gorilla will act as a connectivity broker to enable nationwide data exchange for an expanding set of healthcare organizations, supporting permitted purposes such as Treatment, Individual Access Services, Payment, Health Care Operations, Public Health, and Public Benefit Determination.

Through its collaboration with the Puerto Rico Department of Health, Health Gorilla will continue to expand the landscape of interoperability throughout Puerto Rico while ensuring adherence to the 21st Century Cures Act and TEFCA standards.

About Health Gorilla
Founded in 2014, Health Gorilla is a National Health Information Network (HIN) and interoperability platform providing permitted access to actionable patient data. With enterprise-grade clinical data APIs and an unparalleled master patient index, the Health Gorilla network makes it easy for providers to pull their patient's information from any clinical records system. For more information, visit healthgorilla.com or follow us on Twitter @HealthGorilla.

About the Puerto Rico Health Information Exchange
The Puerto Rico Health Information Exchange (PRHIE) makes patient health information available to doctors, nurses, hospitals, and health care organizations or providers electronically when necessary to care for the patient. Sharing of patient information is protected by strict procedures to safeguard the privacy and confidentiality of records. The PRHIE mission is to improve the speed, quality, safety, and cost of patient care.

SOURCE Health Gorilla