The Iowa Health Information Network, a statewide health information exchange, has partnered with PatientPing, a Boston-based care coordination platform. The partnership, which IHIN will use in place of Iowa’s Statewide Alert Notification system, aims to improve care for patients across hundreds of hospitals, clinics, post-acute care facilities, accountable care organizations, health plans and other community health care organizations throughout Iowa. 

IHIN allows participating facilities to share patient health records securely and professionally with other IHIN network providers, giving them fast access to vital health information when it’s needed the most.

“IHIN is dedicated to improving care, increasing security, streamlining treatment, and reducing medical errors,” said Stephen Stewart, CEO of IHIN. “Through our new partnership with PatientPing, we can advance all of those goals. Additionally, the adoption of interoperable, real-time notifications will lead to better results for our members, and help improve care for patients across the state.”

PatientPing will provide real-time notifications (Pings) and critical patient context (Stories) to treating providers within IHIN’s network. The partnership will also seek to include each of Iowa’s Medicaid managed care organizations, IHIN officials said in a release. PatientPing will enable providers using the tool to improve care for high-risk, high-utilizing patients as well as those participating under value-based care initiatives in order to improve care and reduce costs. 

Stewart said the advancement of care coordination technology is especially valuable for providers entering into value-based payment arrangements that hold them financially accountable for outcomes, care-quality measures and total costs of care. 

Des Moines-based MercyOne, formerly Mercy Health Network, and its accountable care organization announced in January that they had joined the PatientPing network. 

PatientPing, which in January announced it would be hiring nearly 100 additional staff members at its Boston headquarters this year, has grown to a network that includes tens of thousands of providers and payers nationwide, according to its website.