The Geisinger Health System in Danville, Pa., which received a $16 million Beacon Community grant last May, established the Keystone Beacon Community to use health IT to improve the quality of care across the region. Working with a regional health information exchange known as Keystone HIE (KeyHIE), the Keystone Beacon Community will extend patient-focused care coordination to 250,000 patients in northeast and central Pennsylvania. 

Via KeyHIE, which uses technology from GE Healthcare, the Keystone Beacon Community's care managers will be able to tap into communications from care teams and receive automatic notifications of patient encounters. The streamlined communications will give the care managers more time to work with patients who have chronic diseases. That might help prevent these patients from developing complications and being hospitalized. 

Currently, KeyHIE interconnects Geisinger's hospital and five other area hospitals. Geisinger will use a $2.3 million grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to link KeyHIE with additional hospitals, long-term care facilities, home care agencies, and physician practices. It also will use the grant to make additional clinical applications available to HIE participants.

"KeyHIE has the right focus on improving both patient care in the hospital and at home and on reducing cost inefficiencies, like redundant tests, though better information sharing, Earl Jones, vice president of GE Healthcare's eHealth Solutions business unit, said, according to the release. "As the business model for healthcare providers evolves, KeyHIE is well positioned for the future."

To learn more:
- read this GE press release

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