A Patient's Story
HIXNY can help improve care for many people, whether chronically and acutely ill or in good health. The following story offers an example of some of the challenges in our health care delivery system and how one patient achieves a better outcome with the help of HIXNY.
Sarah's Story
Sarah is a 74 year old woman with a history of stroke, congestive heart failure, and arthritis. She travels from family physician to orthopedist to cardiologist to maintain her health. It does not always work out, and Sarah has ended up in more than one emergency department and hospital bed. How do her medications get managed to prevent harm? Who can she rely on to be the keeper and communicator of a fragmented, complex medical history? For the practicing clinicians and institutions that care for her, how do they ensure they have the right information at the time it is needed most? Are we delivering coordinated, safe, and quality care that is efficient for all of us, but especially Sarah?
Intuitively, we know that for the answer to this last question to be a resounding "yes", we must convene as a community in a way never done before to change our system so that Sarah and the 1.4 million other members of our community are better served. HIXNY is that gathering point, with health care organizations, government, education, consumer groups, and employers that resolve not to compete on medical information but to share it for the benefit of our patients. HIXNY exists to forge a path to a new solution, one created by the progressive organizations that comprise our membership.
With the help of HIXNY's system, Sarah's medications will be managed by her family physician, orthopedist, and cardiologist, as well as the hospitalist and emergency medicine physician, in a coordinated manner since they have simple access to a comprehensive view of her drug profile through the health information exchange. Their prescribing decisions are supported at the point of care, rather than wrapped up in phone calls with the pharmacy. They can see Sarah's laboratory data, discharge summaries, diagnostic image interpretations and progress notes from their colleagues. Access to secure messaging allows efficient communication with their colleagues. They are able to use Sarah as a source of confirmation, not the sole source of information, and the personal health record that her daughter helps her mother with provides a valuable history and current understanding of health status. Time spent using the information rather than gathering it, has made practice more enjoyable, for these physicians and their staffs.
Sarah is able to move through all points of care much easier, since they now have instant access to her medical and pharmacy insurance status and benefits. She is not forced to gather her medical history or try to remember what happened and where, such as the last time she was in the hospital. She always worried that she would forget something, and she often did. Even her trips to the drug store are better, as all her medications are ready upon arrival and she has saved money since more generics and covered formulary drugs are being used. With the information at the fingertips of the medical professionals that treat her, Sarah feels better about the care she is receiving and the way it is coordinated.
How did she ever do it before?