INPC expands beyond central Indiana to serve patients from southwestern Indiana, southeastern Illinois

The Indiana Network for Patient Care (INPC), one of the highest volume health information exchanges in the United States, is expanding beyond central Indiana to serve patients from southwestern Indiana and southeastern Illinois.

Good Samaritan Hospital in Vincennes, Ind., joins 40 other medical facilities serving more than 6 million patients as a member of the INPC, a network which makes patient data from one institution securely available at any other INPC participant in real time. This enables physicians to have the information they need - when and where they need it - to make decisions critical to patient care.

Created and operated by the Regenstrief Institute, an international leader in electronic medical record and health information exchange development and operations, the INPC daily handles approximately 2.5 million secure transactions of clinically relevant data such as laboratory test results, medication and treatment histories, and other clinically important information in a standardized, electronic format. This information is critical to diagnoses, treatment and referral decisions.

Good Samaritan, a 232-bed community health-care facility with 1,600 employees, serves a broard range of patients primarily from southwestern Indiana and southeastern Illinois.

"At Good Samaritan Hospital we understand the importance of having accurate, immediate patient data. This is why we think it's necessary to be a part of the Indiana Network of Patient Care," said Gerald Waldroup, interim president and CEO of Good Samaritan Hospital. "This system takes the burden off the patients, while enabling our physicians to see the most up-to-date and relevant patient information that can have a big impact at the point of care."

Good Samaritan is initially making data from the INPC available in its emergency department where physicians and other health-care providers will now have secure and confidential access to information on patients at the point of care. The hospital will also be able to participate in the State's public health reporting systems and other sophisticated systems designed to improve patient care.

The INPC also supports services including delivering test results and reports to physicians through the DOCS4DOCS- Service and also provides a chronic disease and preventive health service through the Quality Health First- Program, offered by the Indiana Health Information Exchange. IHIE, a Regenstrief partner, is the nation's largest health information exchange.

"Our secure and robust clinical information has the flexibility to provide the kinds of services needed for a particular community," said J. Marc Overhage, M.D., Ph.D., director of medical informatics at the Regenstrief Institute, president and CEO of IHIE and Regenstrief Professor of Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine. "INPC is an easy-to-use, clinical information network that helps physicians give their patients the best care possible while saving healthcare dollars."