ADVANCE for Health Information Executives Honors the Louisiana Rural Health
Information Exchange (LARHIX) for Improving Region's Healthcare Delivery Model
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., July 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Carefx Corporation, a leading
provider of interoperable workflow solutions that advance the quality and
safety of patient care, today announced that one of its clients, the Louisiana
Rural Health Information Exchange (LARHIX), was awarded "2009 IT Project of
the Year" by ADVANCE for Health Information Executives, a top healthcare
information technology magazine.
A feature story detailing the health information exchange (HIE) project, which
also involved the Louisiana Rural Hospital Coalition (LRHC) and the Louisiana
State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport (LSUHSC-S), and how
Carefx's Fusionfx solution played a pivotal role in the project's success, is
the cover story of ADVANCE for HIE's August issue, which comes out today.
"Of the numerous and impressive entries submitted from around the country, the
LARHIX project was by far the most compelling in its scope, clinical
excellence and overall performance," said Frank Irving, editor of ADVANCE for
HIE. "The LARHIX project is a model for how regional collaboration and
cutting-edge technology can achieve amazing clinical results for a population
in need."
Louisiana's rural population, with nearly one-quarter living below the federal
poverty line, is isolated from quality health care. The patient-to-physician
ratio in rural Louisiana, 1,925:1, is more than twice the 870:1 ratio in the
state's urban areas. The three organizations - LARHIX, LRHC and LSUHSC-S -
collaborated to develop a regional health information exchange (HIE) that
facilitates electronic sharing of clinical information among community
providers. The innovative project utilizes telemedicine, distance learning,
information-sharing through Carefx's Fusionfx portal, mobile mammography and
rotations by LSUHSC-S students to bring world-class care to rural Louisiana
residents.
For the LARHIX project, Carefx deployed its Fusionfx portal solution, with its
federated, patient-centric model, to facilitate the timely, accurate
electronic sharing of clinical information among community providers. With
Fusionfx at its core, this project went well beyond a normal IT project,
according to Jamie Welch, CIO for LRHC and IT Director for LARHIX. "This is a
patient-care project. That's the whole point. The entire focus is patient care
and making sure that patients finally have access to specialists, such as
radiologists, cardiologists and neurologists," Welch told ADVANCE.
"Fusionfx's federated data model, which keeps data where it originates and
does not create a secondary database, offered LARHIX high security, real-time
access, rapid deployment, and the opportunity for hospitals to choose their
own EMR systems. With Carefx, LARHIX avoids conflicts over data ownership and
data integrity and saves time by not developing and maintaining complex
duplicate databases," said Andrew Hurd, Chairman and CEO of Carefx. "Our
technology architecture is aligned with LARHIX's business model, just as
Carefx's overall goals are in line with what LARHIX does in rural Louisiana -
advancing the quality of healthcare for patients."
Read the full story.
About Carefx Corporation
Carefx supports healthcare organizations in achieving their vision of
advancing the quality and safety of patient care delivery through its Fusionfx
solution suite. 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 600 hospitals, health systems, regional health information organizations
(RHIOs) and health information exchanges (HIEs) across North America and
Europe.
Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Scottsdale, AZ, Carefx can be reached at
(480) 833-5010 or by email at info@carefx.com.
SOURCE Carefx Corporation
Media, Christopher Capot, KNB Communications, +1-212-505-2441, mobile
+1-203-379-8019, ccapot@knbpr.com, for Carefx Corporation
