Rochester RHIO Activates COVID-19 Alerts, Supports Expanded Access to Patient Records

Rochester RHIO is using the full power of our community health information exchange to support public health and the healthcare community with the data it needs in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Rochester RHIO continues to enable expanded user access to longitudinal patient medical records via its Explore clinical query portal. RHIO has also activated notifications for COVID-19 test results. Whether a patient is positive or negative, physicians and clinicians are receiving the lab results they need through three key RHIO services: Explore Clinical Query Portal, MyResults Delivered, and RHIO Alerts.

Rochester RHIO is supporting public health in multiple ways. Most recently, Rochester RHIO developed daily COVID-19 reports for each of the county health departments that we serve. These reports sort, organize and simplify the data from 47+ lab sources and over 20,000 patients. Now, public health officials have secure and quick access to new coronavirus data every day.

Rochester RHIO is also partnering with the New York Department of Health (NYS DOH) to support a new COVID-19 Patient Registry. NYS DOH announced the effort on April 14 in order to "identify disease trends across the State to optimize the government's response to the current pandemic."

Accessing RHIO services for health and community providers using telehealth continues to be a priority. During the pandemic, written consent is waived for telehealth calls where a patient doesn’t have prior written consent on file for RHIO. Rochester RHIO has operationalized this non-durable access through its Break-the-Glass protocol with specific instructions for authorized users.

Also new in April, Rochester RHIO implemented COVID-19 Alerting for all of our participants who use the Alerts service at no extra cost. Whether the results are positive or negative, providers receive the alerts about their patients results as soon as they are available. Rochester RHIO has distributed over 24,000 COVID-19 Alert notifications. 

If you'd like to inquire about COVID-19 Alerts, sign up at https://providerportal.grrhio.org/form/covid19alerts, or call our Support Team at 1-877-865-7446 (RHIO). If you leave a message, someone will get back to you.