Dear HIE participants and community members:
As the Health Information Exchange (HIE) for Northern and the North Central Valley of California, SacValley MedShare (SVMS) serves as a valuable resource for facilitating the exchange of important patient data. This service is especially vital during a healthcare crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. We are here for you.
Supporting communities with critical, real-time patient data during an emergency is a proven use case of community HIEs – as such, we are well equipped to support you during this outbreak. Below are several measures we’re taking to ensure that patient data continues to flow uninterrupted across our region in the coming weeks:
• We do not anticipate any significant disruption to our business operations or service levels. Our data centers and critical infrastructure are fully functional and backed by multiple redundancies, with full customer support.
• We have asked our team members to work remotely until further notice, and our offices will not be open to the public during regular business hours unless a delivery or visit is anticipated and coordinated in advance.
• We are taking steps to ensure that support is in place and available to allow our team to serve participants securely from remote locations with no anticipated drop in service levels.
• We have plans to accelerate the process of gaining access to patient data via SVMS, to support current or new participants in implementing new portal or alerts services.
Important reminder for current HIE participants:
• The HIE is especially helpful for accessing patient medical histories and monitoring patient encounters during the COVID-19 outbreak. The easiest ways to access data are:
Portal – Secure web-based access that allows patient/member data to be viewed online.
You can gain new or expanded portal access during the crisis, either because you have not implemented portal access previously or because new individuals within your organization need portal access during this time.
Alerts – Sent to designated clinicians, individual, or groups of clinicians/individuals based upon a patient panel.
You can update your patient panel, or add a new panel, to monitor your more vulnerable populations during the crisis.
• To implement either of these services, please contact us and mention that you are requesting PRIORITY access related to COVID-19 so that we can accelerate your implementation.
Opportunity for non-HIE participants:
• If you are not an SVMS HIE participant and would like to access your patients’ medical histories and monitor their encounters during the COVID-19 outbreak, please contact us at support@sacvalleyms.org, info@sacvalleymedshare.org or (530) 249-2322, (530) 249-0045, or (530) 249-6188.
• Please mention that you are requesting PRIORITY access related to COVID-19 so that we can accelerate your implementation process.
The secure exchange of reliable and timely patient data is critical during a healthcare crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. We will continue to monitor and evaluate the situation and communicate to all HIE stakeholders as the situation evolves. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at the email addresses and/or phone numbers listed above or visit our website at https://sacvalleyms.org for resources and contact information.
Thank you and stay safe, Your SacValley MedShare Team
