Ohio State's Wexner Medical Center Joins Ohio Health Information Partnership

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center announced today it is joining the Ohio Health Information Partnership’s health information exchange, CliniSync, allowing the Medical Center to electronically share patient health information with more than 100 hospitals and 6,000 physicians statewide.

“Currently, we share electronic health records with other facilities that use the same system we do. This partnership opens the gate, allowing us to directly communicate with additional hospitals and physician offices that use different systems, and that will improve patient care,” said Phyllis Teater, chief information officer at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center.

The ability to directly exchange information will strengthen existing relationships with hospital partners in the Ohio State Health Network, and with referring physician practices.  It gives the entire team of care providers access to the same up-to-date information about their patient, reducing paperwork and increasing efficiency and coordination of care.

The agreement will allow Wexner Medical Center to better communicate with Mount Carmel Health System, which is also joining CliniSync. The two organizations recently announced an affiliation that will promote collaboration in clinical care, research and medical education.

“This is a valuable step in our mission to provide innovative, patient-centered care. We see great potential in the opportunity to collaborate and provide faster, more effective care in the setting that best suits our patients’ needs,” said Dr. Steven Gabbe, senior vice president of health sciences at Ohio State and CEO of the Medical Center. “One example of this is the transition as young pediatric patients grow to become adult patients in our care, and the ability to have one complete electronic health record stay with them.”

CliniSync is a secure computer information network with 132 hospitals committed to joining. It provides secure, encrypted email, a management tool for patient referrals and the ability to share medical reports, images, test results and other transcribed reports. The system currently covers 77 of Ohio’s 88 counties and is capable of communicating across other health information exchanges.

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Contact: Marti Leitch, Medical Center Public Affairs and Media Relations, 614-293-3737 or Marti.Leitch@osumc.edu