Eliminating paper, faxes and phone calls from the referral process has proven to be a difficult interoperability challenge, but health IT experts continue to work on it. Providers and developers recently announced that they have successfully implemented the 360X closed-loop referral management tool integrated into their Epic and Netsmart EHRs.
The 360X standards are designed to improve referral management, close communication gaps, and enable transparency between care settings. The standards aim to electronically close the loop on referrals, thereby improving patient, caregiver and provider satisfaction while improving the efficiency of care. These standards are intended to help reduce provider burden, transcription errors, and overall costs of care so that primary care providers are informed and can efficiently follow patients as they transition to care. community.
This partnership facilitates the exchange of primary care and behavioral health information within a federally qualified health center model. 360X standards enable PCPs to receive automatic referral status updates and clinical summaries directly into their electronic health record (EHR).
The effort used standards that are ubiquitous across the industry, including HL7 C-CDA for clinical content, Direct Standard for transportation, and HL7 V2 messaging for referral/transfer status messages in care settings.
Netsmart announced the successful implementation of 360X closed-loop electronic referral management standards with LifeWorks NorthWest, a private nonprofit organization providing prevention, mental health, substance use treatment, and related social services to youth, adults, and adults. seniors in more than 15 locations in Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties in Oregon.
The company said this milestone improves communication and coordination between primary care and community-based behavioral health care providers, streamlining referral management and supporting comprehensive transparency across all care settings. The project also involved collaboration between Netsmart, Epic, MedAllies and other interoperability providers.
By electronically closing the loop on referrals, 360X hopes to improve patient, caregiver and provider satisfaction and improve the efficiency and value of patient care, while decreasing provider burden, transcription errors and cost of care. The idea is that EHR vendors will add this functionality to their systems and make it available to their provider customers, who in turn will implement and widely adopt the 360X functionality.
“We are currently testing referral workflows to accept and reject notifications when the behavioral health provider receives a referral, as well as closing the loop so that the clinical note is sent automatically once the appointment is completed,” Ben said. Rosen, BSN, RN, customer success manager at Netsmart, in a statement. LifeWorks Northwest uses the Netsmart EHR. “Not only will you receive a notification that the appointment has been completed, but also the clinical note with some progress notes and some updated medications or clinical data will also be sent automatically.”
Rosen said they would measure the time saved and the reduction in paper use in the referral process over time.
“LifeWorks NW has a long-standing commitment to leveraging interoperability and data sharing to drive integrated care models and foster strong partnerships with hospital and primary care partners,” said LifeWorks NW Vice President of Operations Katy Beveridge in a statement. “We are delighted to collaborate with Netsmart and OCHIN on 360X closed-loop referral innovation and look forward to this new capability deepening our partnership to deliver better care.”
