In Simulated Pt. Case, HSX Locates Missing Individual and Alerts His Care Team

On October 28, 2015, HSX demonstrated its patient locator and Encounter Notification services.  At the annual meeting of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society — HIMSS — of New Jersey and the Delaware Valley, HSX illustrated how two of its services can change the experience and care of patient and family.

With several of its participating members and technology vendors at the NJ/DVHIMSS fall event, HSX showed the power of care coordination and location of family members, through its services that provide alerts and patient look-up:

Demo participants:

  • HSX
  • Mirth
  • Ai (Audacious Inquiry)
  • Delaware Valley Accountable Care Organization (DVACO)
  • Main Line Health
  • Crozer-Keystone Health System
  • Hahnemann University Hospital

In the day’s scenario, a 50-year-old male travels to Philadelphia.  On his way, he feels a pain in his chest and left arm, and becomes short of breath.

He is transported to the nearest hospital — Lankenau Medical Center.  Immediately after the patient is admitted to the emergency department, the patient’s admit information is sent to HSX, triggering a real-time notification to the accountable care organization subscribed for this patient, in this case Delaware Valley Accountable Care Organization (DVACO), which initiates the patient’s care-management process.

The patient’s family becomes concerned when he cannot be reached via cell phone after many hours.  In an attempt to locate the patient, they contact  Hahnemann University Hospital, a medical center near the location where the patient was to visit.  Hahnemann’s staff has no record of the patient but places a call to HSX for assistance through the HSX Urgent Patient Activity Liaison service (uPAL),which is based on admission/discharge/transfer (ADT) data provided by HSX member hospitals.

An HSX staff member looks up the patient’s identifying information in the Clinical Data Repositoryand informs the caller that the patient was recently admitted to Lankenau.  The Hahnemann staff member informs the patient’s relatives of the patient’s location.  As a result, these family members are able to reach, find, and support this loved one in care. 

After the patient is discharged, the patient’s insurance provider, accountable care organization, and Crozer-Keystone Health System primary care physician (PCP) receive a discharge alert and care summary based on a subscription to HSX’s Encounter Notification Service.  At this point, that patient’s family, primary doctor, and care managers at the insurance company and accountable care organization work together to arrange follow-up care for the patient and confirm arrangements for transitional care, including an office visit to his family doctor (PCP) at Crozer and any additional specialist visits to manage his diagnosis of high cholesterol and coronary artery disease.