Lockport Union-Sun & Journal Briody Health Care Facility is the first long-term care facility to join the Western New York HEALTHeLINK electronic clinical information exchange.

The exchange allows health care providers to access consenting patients medical records, to gain important information such as blood type, vaccination history, allergy history and current prescription medical regimens.

The exchange is a way for different specialists primary care doctor, cardiologist, allergist, oncologist to know a patients full medical history in the event the patient is unable to convey or doesnt remember all of the details, according to the HealthELink website. Patients must actively consent to their information being viewed by participating providers.

Briody Health Care Facility has begun submitting residents admission, discharge and transfer notices electronically through HealthELink, a spokesman announced this week.

We are very happy to collaborate with HealthELink to add another aspect of technology at our health facility which will help improve patient outcomes, Briody Administrator Ann Briody Petock said. Our facility initiated the use of an electronic medical record three years ago, and we have seen the benefits that technology can provide to increase communication, quality of care and to prepare us for the digital future of health care.

Throughout the eight-county Western New York region, more than 390,000 residents are signed up to have their health records viewed in HealthELink. Nearly 2,400 individual health-care providers are participating.In addition to Briody, they come fromthree independent laboratory practices, five independent radiology practices, three home care agencies and area hospitals accounting for 90 percent of the beds in the region, according to executive director Daniel Porreca.

Briodys addition is a milestone for the system, he said.

Transition of care, whether from the hospital to a long-term care facility, or from long-term to home care, can be vulnerable times for patients ... as their health information and current medications may be in flux, Porreca said. Having long-term care facilities as data sources for HealthELink will allow for better coordination between treating physicians. Those physicians will also have immediate access to their patients health information to provide better and more efficient care during these transitions.

For more information about the system, visit http://www.wnyhealthelink.com.

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Briody joins new record exchange