ATLANTA—South Georgia Medical Center is implementing RelayHealth’s patient centered Health Information Exchange (HIE) platform as part of its strategy to meet Stage 2 Meaningful Use requirements and facilitate the fluid exchange of data between physicians and patients.

In the past 18 months, South Georgia Medical Center (SGMC) has evolved from a community hospital into a four-hospital system that includes a 25-bed critical access hospital about 25 miles from the main Valdosta campus. The growth meant that HIE was critical to the organization’s success.

“As our strategy to become a regional hospital evolved, we wanted to make sure we had HIE capacity to share patient data among all of our hospitals and physicians and, subsequently, among individual patients,” said Bob Foster, SGMC’s chief information officer. “That, in concert with the criteria for Meaningful Use, led us down this path.”

Phase one of the project includes populating the RelayHealth HIE with the hospitals’ information and making it available to physicians. Foster noted that fast Internet access will replace the current, more cumbersome, remote portal.

The second phase involves connecting five physician practices’ EMRs to the HIE so physician orders and test results can flow between the two. More practices will be added to the HIE later.

The final phase involves a patient portal that will allow individuals to communicate electronically with their physicians and view their health records. Foster said the patient portal interface was a main reason the hospital system selected RelayHealth’s HIE. “The navigation is much smoother than others I’ve looked at,” said Foster.

“Some of our physicians are communicating electronically, but most are not. The fact that we’ll have RelayHealth and a patient portal that their records can go into will make that easier, particularly for those who haven’t yet adopted an EMR.”

“As health systems move toward managing the health of populations, they seek electronic means of communicating with patients and to aggregate data for analysis,” said Jeff Felton, president, RelayHealth. “RelayHealth’s patient-centric HIE can help them meet their goals.”

About RelayHealth

RelayHealth, McKesson’s connectivity business, enables the secure exchange of clinical, financial and administrative information between patients, providers, payers, pharmacies, pharmaceutical manufacturers and government agencies. RelayHealth processes nearly 16 billion healthcare transactions annually by integrating the delivery of high-quality care and improving the financial outcomes for its customers. For more information, call 888.743.8735, or visit our Web site at http://www.RelayHealth.com. Follow us on Twitter (@RelayHealth) or LinkedIn.

About SGMC

South Georgia Medical Center is a not for profit, regional referral hospital dedicated to being the leader in improving the health, wellness and quality of life in the communities we serve. Located in the metropolis of Valdosta, Georgia, SGMC serves a multi-county area in South Georgia and North Florida. As a 330-bed acute care hospital, SGMC provides area residents with broad services through our growing medical staff of more than 200 physicians and 3000 staff. We continually strive to provide quality patient care and quality outcomes. SGMC is recognized for providing quality care at a state and national level. SGMC is fully accredited by the Joint Commission. This accreditation is the highest mark of quality in the healthcare field. SGMC was established to care for the sick and injured, regardless of sex, race, creed, color, nationality handicap or disability.