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Defran Systems Prepares for the Next Step in Health Information Exchange at the Behavioral Health IT Interoperability Conference

New York, NY – Ron Aceto, VP of Client Services, and Boris Kagan, VP of Development, for Defran Systems joined other stakeholders at the Behavioral Health Interoperability Conference in Phoenix on January 26th-28th 2010, which focused on facilitating the electronic exchange of health records using a Continuity of Care Document (CCD).

The conference was hosted by the Software and Technology Vendors’ Association (SATVA), who invited representatives from the Mental Health Corporations of America (MHCA), the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare, the medical and addiction communities and other stakeholders to learn about the CCD, a key component for exchanging patient health records electronically. The participants discussed the CCD content and relevance for healthcare delivery services and explored how it would support a BH record.

The CCD is an electronic document that contains the patient’s healthcare summary including information pertaining to medications, diagnosis, visits, lab tests and results, etc. This exchange standard is also the central mechanism which will enable system interoperability by making possible the exchange of data among multiple healthcare providers; including behavioral health, substance abuse and medical providers. In addition, it is a requirement for ARRA/CCHIT Certification and therefore necessary for achieving Meaningful Use of an Electronic Health Record (EHR). The purpose of the conference was to define data needs specific to the Behavioral Health community that will form the basic structure of the CCD.

The CCD would organize the most frequent and important patient health information into a form that can be shared by the most common computer applications such as a web browser. At the conference, SATVA successfully demonstrated how system interoperability could be achieved by exchanging health records between different EHR platforms using a CCD.

Several significant benefits are expected to be experienced by patients and providers when full interoperability is achieved. Patients served by multiple Behavioral Healthcare providers can expect better quality of service when the providers are finally able to easily exchange patient health information. Behavioral Health providers will also be able to share patient information with Medical Health providers leading to improved overall health. The efficiencies that will result from the seamless exchange of information are expected to help lower the costs of providing healthcare.

Defran Systems has developed software for the Behavioral Health and Human Services industries for more than 25 years and is committed to the goals of interoperability and meeting the requirements for CCHIT certification for its Evolv-CS™ EHR system. Said Mr. Aceto “System interoperability and the federal Meaningful Use standards are critical for improving the quality of care received by the patients our clients serve. Defran Systems will meet these criteria and continue to assist our agencies deliver the highest quality of care possible.”

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