A recent collaboration between DCSF and Arkansas statewide HIE will streamline care coordination for children in foster care. Care coordination depends on making sure that children’s health information follows them from provider to provider as they move through the foster care system.
Health information exchange challenges such as data silos across social care and healthcare can be a hindrance to care coordination and as a result patient care.
State Health Alliance for Records Exchange (SHARE)
Arkansas State Health Alliance for Records Exchange (SHARE) will help build a more complete picture of children’s health and combat data silos issues. SHARE aims to improve delivery, quality, and healthcare for children in foster care.
A partnership between SHARE and the Division of Children and Family Services
SHARE is also a part of the state government. So the HIE has different windows of opportunities to create meaningful partnerships with other state programs.
For example, a collaboration between SHARE and the Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is assisting in ensuring that health information for foster children is available when and where it is required for proper care coordination.
A child who is in foster care in Arkansas must see a pediatrician two counties over from their home county within 3 days. Here the HIE operating under a state agency makes things easier and seamless in foster care. Now the foster caseworkers can smoothly transfer information and practitioners can learn who is in charge of the child’s foster placement. Now critical information such as medical records, education plans, and case histories in the Electronic Medical Records (EMR) Software is readily available to make informed care decisions. This can help ensure that children receive coordinated, comprehensive services that meet their unique needs.
Issues before the statewide HIE partnership
Before the partnership, the DCFS caseworkers would have to contact the Child’s care team to get the health documents to be shared with the new pediatrician. The 3 days time period was not long enough to get the child’s entire medical history to keep the new provider well-informed to make care decisions. A lack of seamless data transfer can impede care coordination.
Importance of Interoperability in foster care
Foster care requires interoperability because it enables many organizations and systems to exchange data, coordinate services, and collaborate efficiently to enhance results for foster children. To guarantee that children receive the best care and assistance, a complex network of parties must communicate and cooperate, including child welfare agencies, courts, schools, healthcare professionals, and social service organizations.
Interoperability is critical in foster care to guarantee that all stakeholders are effectively working together to offer the greatest outcomes for children in care.
