Utilizing a health information exchange to facilitate COVID-19 VA primary care follow-up for Veterans diagnosed in the community

Rachel L. Sherman, Kimberly M. Judon, Nicholas S. Koufacos, Vivian M. Guerrero Aquino, Shaniqua M. Raphael, Judith T. Hollander, Kenneth S. Boockvar

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

The use of alerts from the Bronx RHIO, a health information exchange (HIE) to identify James J. Peters VAMC patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in the community was described to facilitate COVID-19 VA primary care follow-up. COVID-19 hospitalization and testing alerts were delivered on a Bronx RHIO facility report. VA COVID-19 follow-up care by telephone and video was guided by local COVID-19 clinical pathways, electronic health record (EHR) templates, and tracking through a database. VA received 180 RHIO alerts for 111 unique patients, and 88 had positive non-VA testing from March to June 2020. 41% of the 88 had non-VA admissions and 23% died. 63% received VA primary care follow-up of COVID-19 symptoms documented by custom EHR templates. The HIE identified 11% of the facility COVID-19 patients. HIE alerts can be used to identify facility COVID-19 patients diagnosed in the community and facilitate follow-up by their VA primary care teams.

Original languageEnglish
Article numberooab020
JournalJAMIA Open
Volume4
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2021
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • COVID-19
  • coronavirus
  • health information exchange
  • health information interoperability
  • veterans health

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