This week, the New York State Legislature voted to support New York’s EHR/HIE system – known as the Statewide Health Information Network of New York (the SHIN-NY). The final New York State Fiscal Year 2015-16 Budget includes $45M in State funding for the SHIN-NY and its Regional Health Information Organizations (RHIOs), which will continue the work to build this public network, allowing healthcare providers and patients to seamlessly access electronic health records throughout the state. To date, over 50,000 healthcare providers already participate in the SHIN-NY and over 7 million New Yorkers have given consent for their medical records to be shared.
In addition to driving adoption and usage of the network, the funding for the SHIN-NY in the budget will help to make a core set of standard services available to all participants. These services will allow doctors to look up individual patient records through a secure search engine, exchange direct messages with other doctors, and receive alerts when their patients have an important event such as entering an emergency room or being discharged from a hospital.
The SHIN-NY will also be a key component in to helping providers who are working together through programs such as the Delivery System Reform Incentive Program (DSRIP) collaborate with each other to improve the quality of care while reducing costs.
“The Regional Health Information Organizations and New York e-Health Collaborative would like to thank Governor Cuomo, Speaker Heastie, Senate Majority Leader Skelos and the entire Legislature for prioritizing the health of all New Yorkers by authorizing crucial funding for the Statewide Health Information Network of New York in the final budget. By enabling healthcare providers to securely share vital health information throughout the state, the SHIN-NY will help to improve the quality, efficiency and ease of treatment for patients,” said Dave Whitlinger, Executive Director of the New York eHealth Collaborative, which coordinates activities for the SHIN-NY.
New York has been at the forefront of health innovation and is the first large state in the country building a public network of interconnected EHRs of this kind. Implementation of the SHIN-NY is poised to transform patient care, promote economic development, lower state healthcare costs and enhance overall public health.
