KeyHIE Leverages Orion Health’s HIE Infrastructure to Deliver COVID-19 Test Results Across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

BOSTON – June 16, 2020 – The Keystone Health Information Exchange (KeyHIE®), a network of more than 350 healthcare facilities across Pennsylvania and New Jersey, announced today that it has leveraged its longstanding partnership with Orion Health, a leading provider of population health management solutions, to enable real-time automated COVID-19 reporting. The reporting improves public health data collection across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and helps address the COVID-19 health crisis.

Data is key when it comes to managing a pandemic. Gaps in communication between public health departments and healthcare organizations make it difficult to track cases and reduce infection rates. In order to combat the pandemic, KeyHIE needed a way to share reportable COVID-19 lab results from member organization Allegheny Health Network with providers and public health entities. KeyHIE turned to longtime technology partner Orion Health to provide project management and interface development services. Responding to the urgent need, Orion Health completed the implementation in just five days.

 Now, Allegheny’s COVID-19 reportable lab results are instantly shared with other providers in the HIE, stored in the KeyHIE Clinical Data Repository powered by Orion Health, and routed to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s electronic disease surveillance system to ensure accurate and timely public health reporting. An additional benefit of automatic reporting of patient data is that it alleviates the burden of manual reporting, giving providers more time to focus on higher value activities, including patient care. 

“KeyHIE and Orion Health quickly and effectively implemented the desired solution, earning a 5-star satisfaction rating from Allegheny Health Network,” said KeyHIE Senior Director of Operations Kim Chaundy. “Because of this, Allegheny was able to implement real time, automated COVID-19 reporting to the Commonwealth with minimal effort. KeyHIE is continuing to leverage Orion Health’s HIE infrastructure to provide relevant public health reporting for COVID-19.”

Orion Health has been working closely with customers like KeyHIE since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak to quickly develop and deploy solutions to meet their needs. In an effort to better support its customers, Orion Health developed, and now offers free of charge, the first comprehensive pandemic outbreak monitoring platform to alleviate the demand on health systems and help reduce the virus’ spread. Orion Health understands the importance and need for innovation and rapid deployment of effective solutions, particularly as the pandemic continues to affect populations across the world. 

“KeyHIE and Orion Health, working in partnership, were able to solve an important public health and provider challenge – delivering COVID-19 test results automatically to both the HIE and to the Commonwealth,” said Orion Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Chris Hobson. “Improving public health data collection is of enormous value to the Commonwealth as they seek to better manage an ongoing public health crisis. At the same time, the solution also makes COVID-19 test results available across the HIE for access by any provider on the front lines caring for patients who may be positive for COVID-19.”

About KeyHIE

The Keystone Health Information Exchange® (KeyHIE) was founded by Geisinger Health System in April 2005, via a memorandum of understanding signed by 8 hospitals throughout Central Pennsylvania. One of the nation’s largest and most advanced health information exchanges, KeyHIE connects 18 hospitals, 251 physician practices, 95 long-term care facilities, 30 home health agencies and other healthcare organizations. It serves over 4 million patients over a 53-county presence in Pennsylvania to ensure health information follows patients, regardless of where they receive care. KeyHIE offers a wide range of services to doctor’s offices, hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare organizations in Pennsylvania and surrounding areas. For more information, visit KeyHIE.org.