Health Information Exchange
North Coast Health Information
Network (NCHIN), is a new California non-profit and the successor
organization to a community collaborative hosted by the Humboldt-Del Norte
Independent Practice Association and Humboldt-Del Norte Foundation for Medical Care
(the Foundation). NCHIN’s purpose is
to provide health information exchange in Humboldt and Del Norte counties and it
has a staff of dedicated and experienced Information Technology and management
professionals drawn from the sponsoring organization.
The Foundation is a community
leader, initiating the expansion of Information Technology projects in
conjunction with local health care providers in community collaboratives. The
Foundation has been the recipient of over 10 major grant awards for clinical and
information technology projects, many with one or more of the partners listed on
the left.
While EHR adoption in our
community is greater than 50% for local clinicians, significant barriers to
connecting individual practices, hospitals and healthcare service providers
exist. This project lowers those
barriers by helping to build a Health Information Organization with the capacity
to provide lab results interfaces with data from local hospitals and ancillary
providers. NCHIN will provide those
connections between providers which safeguards patients’ privacy and
confidentiality.