CommonWell Health Alliance Grows Toward Nationwide Interoperability

CommonWell Health Alliance has added five new members that significantly enhance the association’s nationwide footprint, share of the EHR marketplace, and diversity across the care continuum. MEDITECH, Merge, and Kareo join as contributing members while PointClickCare and Surgical Information Systems (SIS) join as general members.

With the addition of these new members, CommonWell membership now represents 70% of the acute care EHR market and 20% of the ambulatory care EHR market. CommonWell membership also represents market leaders in imaging, perinatal, laboratory, retail pharmacy, oncology, population health, post-acute care, and others across the care continuum.

“We know it takes collective experience and dedication to break down barriers to nationwide data exchange, so we are especially pleased to welcome these industry innovators to the CommonWell family,” said Nick Knowlton, vice president of business development at Brightree and CommonWell membership committee chair. “Each organization will contribute to our effort by providing a commitment to action and new perspectives for additional use cases that will help us accelerate our current deployment of real-world interoperability services.”

• MEDITECH is one of CommonWell’s largest members to join since inception. It provides fully integrated technology solutions for hospitals, ambulatory care centers, physicians’ offices, long term care and behavioral health facilities, and home care organizations. MEDITECH’s membership increases CommonWell’s share of the acute care market from 50% to 70%.

• Merge is a leading provider of enterprise imaging, interoperability, and clinical systems that seek to advance health care. It offers solutions in radiology, eye care, cardiology, orthopedics and clinical trials—all of which provide the opportunity for CommonWell to develop new use cases across a broader spectrum of the healthcare continuum. Additionally, Merge has the most complete radiology solution on the market, from small-volume sites up to the largest practices and chains in the country.

• Kareo brings over 30,000 providers and 60,000 users of its cloud-based medical office software suite into CommonWell. As CommonWell continues to deploy services nationwide, Kareo’s ambulatory experience and reach will accelerate universal provider access to critical healthcare data.

• PointClickCare’s cloud-based software platform helps more than 10,000 senior living and skilled nursing communities to achieve results that matter – enriching the lives of their residents for better outcomes, improving financial and operational health, and mitigating risk. The company’s person-centered approach to managing senior care ensures providers can collaborate securely, across care settings with confidence.

• Surgical Information Systems (SIS) joins as CommonWell’s first vendor solely focused on providing solutions specific to the perioperative process. As CommonWell prepares to develop new use cases, SIS’ expertise and knowledge of the complex surgical environment will serve to enhance CommonWell’s ability to offer real-world interoperability services that are functional for specialty care settings.

To date, CommonWell’s services—patient identification, record location, patient privacy and consent, and trusted data access—are live in six states including North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Massachusetts, Washington, and Illinois. More than 20 provider locations are using the services, and more than 26,000 persons have consented to enroll on CommonWell’s network.