CareConnect Open For Business

There’s little doubt that having a single, trustworthy repository for all health information is a game-changer for the industry. Already, there is recognition from across the spectrum of SA’s health sector that CareConnect’s Health Information Exchange (HIE) is fulfilling this purpose. As a tool, the HIE provides the potential to facilitate a new paradigm of data-driven decision making in the interest of providing better care to patients. Since launching in late 2021, nearly 4.5 million patient records have been added to the CareConnect HIE, and the number of transactions has exceeded 50 million – at a speed of under one second per transaction. CareConnect’s Master Patient Index (MPI) is providing significant value to participants as it performs seamless patient identity matching across the total population of patients – from all participants. Where data can’t be matched, or where anomalies are discovered (as in the case of duplicate scheme membership), data stewards from the relevant organisations work together to resolve the matter. This process also assists participants in addressing data quality issues within their own data sources.

Of the 4.5 million records, only 1% (45,681) have required manual matching intervention, demonstrating the excellent quality of the data being provided by participants. Because it provides a single integration point for all participants, the CareConnect HIE becomes THE source of industry intelligence, enabling the development of human-centric solutions in doing the business of healthcare. In our HIE world, this promotes ‘coopetition’, cooperative competition, a well-recognised and understood concept. The HIE enables cooperation in sharing of data and promotes competition in using the intelligence extracted from the data to drive value and efficiencies. Therefore, key to the success of the HIE is populating it with meaningful, useful and good quality data from across the health ecosystem.

The overwhelming support of CareConnect by both the public and private health sectors demonstrates that the HIE and the value it unlocks is an innovation whose time has come. For us at CareConnect, this support has paved our segway into Phase Two of the project, which includes the addition of diagnostic information (Radiology and Pathology). For Radiology PMAs and Pathology groupings, a single integration via the CareConnect HIE adds value by avoiding the need for numerous separate integrations with their various stakeholders.

Article taken from CareConnect Newsletter, September 2022