BLUE BELL, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Halfpenny Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of clinical data exchange solutions, today announced that it has reached an exclusive, sole source agreement with Health Sciences South Carolina (HSSC) to participate in a demonstration project for a lab hub that will facilitate seamless clinical data exchange between the members of the Center for Information Technology Implementation Assistance in South Carolina (CITIA-SC), South Carolina’s regional extension center.
“Our agreement with HSSC and CITIA-SC to develop a lab hub will enable secure, efficient and real-time clinical data exchange among healthcare providers throughout South Carolina in a way that complements the state’s HIE initiative,” said Jerry Baker, president and CEO of Halfpenny Technologies. “By facilitating the achievement of EMR Meaningful Use, this collaboration will provide physicians, hospitals and laboratories in South Carolina with an opportunity to improve workflow efficiency and achieve more favorable clinical outcomes.”
Organized by HSSC and several partner organizations, CITIA-SC has been established to assist in the implementation of EMR systems in primary care practices throughout South Carolina and to help physicians connect to state and national health information exchanges. The regional extension center (REC), which was funded as a result of a $5.6 million grant awarded to HSSC through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, will also educate medical and administrative staff on how to optimize their EMR systems so that both practices and patients will be able to realize maximum gains in terms of enhanced patient care, safety and efficiency.
“Lab data accounts for an estimated 80 percent of the information contained within an EMR system, making that information vital for timely diagnosis and the effective practice of medicine within our state,” said Todd Thornburg, PhD, HSSC senior program manager. “By delivering real-time laboratory results to participating physicians’ EMR systems, the lab hub project will help CITIA-SC members improve quality and increase patient safety while reducing overall costs of care. I am pleased to be a part of this impactful project. Halfpenny’s neutral standing among lab providers, combined with their unique ability to provide extensive mapping of Logical Observation Identifiers, Names and Codes (LOINC) were key factors in our selection.”
Under the direction of CITIA-SC, Halfpenny Technologies will deploy its lab and EMR vendor-neutral lab hub that will initially be accessible by a selected group of the REC’s constituents, including LabCorp, Solstas and other reference laboratories. The hub will also be made available to hospitals across South Carolina, the South Carolina Primary Care Association, the South Carolina Office of Rural Health networks, and other physician practices and clinics.
“It is our hope that by providing a neutral hub for exchanging and processing laboratory orders and results, Halfpenny will enable CITIA-SC members to meet meaningful use certification requirements for physician EMR adoption, including CPOE, structured results reporting and quality reporting, while minimizing the IT resource demands on hospitals and laboratory participants,” said Jay Moskowitz, HSSC president and CEO. “We look forward to working with Halfpenny on this very important demonstration project initiative, which will not only assist healthcare providers in qualifying for federal incentive payments, but will also provide them with a valuable tool with which to improve care delivery.”
About Health Sciences South Carolina
Established in April 2004, Health Sciences South Carolina (HSSC) is a statewide public-private collaborative of universities and health systems possessing the shared vision of using health sciences research to improve the health and economic wellbeing of South Carolina. HSSC includes Clemson University, the Medical University of South Carolina, the University of South Carolina, Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center, Palmetto Health, and Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System. For information, visit www.healthsciencessc.org.
About Halfpenny Technologies
Halfpenny Technologies is a leading provider of clinical data exchange solutions, enabling hospitals and laboratories to integrate with disparate physician EMR systems. Halfpenny's SaaS-based ITF-Hub provides a reliable, secure platform to exchange clinical, financial and administrative data while reducing complexity and costs. Additionally, consolidated streams of LOINC mapped data can be routed to constituents for other initiatives, including HIE, ACO, HEDIS, PQRI and health plan reporting. ITF-Portal is a Web-based order entry and results reporting system to rapidly search and retrieve various clinical reports. ITF-GoDoc is a mobile application to access laboratory, pathology, radiology and other clinical results reports securely. ITF-GoDoc MobileOE is a mobile CPOE system for secure billing information, ask-at-order entry questions, specimen types and medical necessity compliance. To learn more, call 855-277-9100 or visit www.halfpenny.com.