[June 25, 2014]

Sutter Health Implements Health Information Exchange Allowing Unaffiliated Providers to Share Critical Patient Information

Today, Sutter Health announces an important step to improving care coordination and clinical quality across Northern California: the launch of a fully integrated health information exchange (HIE) system. Sutter Health is working with Orion Health to build and deploy the HIE, which will allow doctors and hospitals-inside and outside its network of care-to securely share clinical information.

Currently, the Sutter Health electronic health record (EHR) connects five medical foundations and 17 hospital campuses. By 2015, it expects to complete its EHR installation to better support care delivery to 3 million active patients in more than 100 Northern California cities and towns. An HIE system that integrates Sutter's EHR with other providers' systems will help Northern California caregivers improve quality, safety and efficiency for all patients traveling between providers.

"An HIE system will allow us to securely exchange up-to-date patient information with Sutter Health clinicians as well as those not affiliated ith our organization, providing us with complete, secure 360-degree views of patients' care and health histories, wherever and whenever it's needed," said Chris Jaeger, M.D., Sutter Health Chief Medical Information Officer. "Improved delivery of reliable information can be especially important in emergencies-when every second counts for patients in distress."

"Sutter Health is an innovative health care organization, focused on providing first-rate care to its patients, and that's evidenced by its extensive HIE selection process," said James Date, Senior Vice President, Sales, Orion Health. "More and more organizations are realizing the critical need for technology that facilitates the sharing of patient information. They want to meet regulatory requirements, and more importantly, they want to share information quickly and securely-often across multiple facilities. Orion Health is happy to provide this solution to further help Sutter Health provide personalized care."

This summer, Sutter Health will begin deploying the HIE in phases. The first step involves basic data integration with the Sutter EHR as well as testing the exchange of inbound and outbound data to ensure quality.

For more information about Orion Health Inc., visit www.orionhealth.com and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

About Sutter Health

Serving patients and their families in more than 100 Northern California cities and towns, Sutter Health doctors, not-for-profit hospitals and other health care service providers share resources and expertise to advance health care quality and access. The Sutter Medical Network includes many of California's top-performing, highest quality physician organizations as measured annually by the Integrated Healthcare Association. Sutter-affiliated hospitals are regional leaders in cardiac care, women's and children's services, cancer care, orthopedics and advanced patient safety technology.

For more information about the not-for-profit Sutter Health network, please visit:

SutterHealth.org/about/ | www.Facebook.com/SutterHealth | www.YouTube.com/SutterHealth | www.twitter.com/SutterHealth

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