careMESH Announces the First National Provider Directory Built Entirely to the HL7 FHIR Standard

Press Release | careMESH | July 30, 2019

RESTON, Va. - July 30, 2019 - PRLog -- careMESH, the only service provider to guarantee digital delivery of patient health information to any US-based clinician, announced the launch of the country's first National Provider Directory based entirely on the HL7 FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) R4 standard. HL7 is a not-for-profit organization focused on developing consensus standards for the exchange, integration, sharing, and retrieval of electronic health information that supports clinical practice and the management and delivery of healthcare.

By building the careMESH Directory on the FHIR standard, data can be easily integrated into most Electronic Health Records (EHR) or other third-party applications, making it possible to rely on a single source of information for healthcare organizations seeking to:

  • Supplement a Hospital's internal and EHR directories with clinicians from other organizations to improve collaboration and reduce manual processes.
  • Create a mechanism for Health Information Exchange (HIE) members to easily conduct a search and share digital patient information through careMESH Clinical Communications and Collaboration tools.
  • Meet CMS proposed rules for Health Plans to make provider directories available through open FHIR APIs and augment the information held in their provider network databases.
  • Manage an Accountable Care Organization (ACO) referral network and discharge workflows to streamline patient transitions of care.
  • Include community health, home health, and other members of the patient care team in communications to improve care coordination outside the clinical setting.
    Physician Listing in the careMESH National Provider DirectoryPhysician Listing in the careMESH National Provider Directory

Ahead of the announcement, Charles Jaffe, MD, PhD, CEO of HL7 commented: "As the communities of FHIR implementation grow, we are committed to supporting innovative approaches such as this to enable more seamless information exchange and drive better health outcomes."

To maintain a comprehensive database of over 5.1 Million licensed practitioner and organizational listings, the careMESH directory is continuously updated from official data sources including NPI, PECOS, state medical boards, other state and federal databases, as well as from the individual practitioners and their organizations. Guided by the FHIR standard, careMESH transforms data from these sources into records that cross reference practitioners with their affiliated organizations so it can be leveraged by other FHIR-compliant applications.

"Our goal has long been to create a 'single source of truth' upon which the US healthcare industry can rely," said Dr. Peter Tippett, Founder and CEO of careMESH. "No longer do healthcare organizations have to piece together directories of their own, and still be missing providers who care for their patients or beneficiaries. Our industry can finally have true collaboration across the continuum of care."

The careMESH directory includes a proprietary mechanism to assess data quality about a practitioner from different sources, to determine which is most accurate and current. Optionally, careMESH customers can add clinical communications and collaboration services to securely and digitally deliver transitions of care with a guarantee of delivery to any provider in the directory.

About careMESH

careMESH brings together a national provider directory, secure communications, health information exchange, and transition of care workflows into a single service, so that any provider can communicate and collaborate with any other, instantly. Our cloud-based services are designed to efficiently allow hospitals, ACO's, Health Plans and other healthcare delivery organizations to communicate about patients, maintain complete control over when and where information is shared, and rapidly reduce reliance on outdated tools such as fax and phone calls. 

HL7 and FHIR are the registered trademarks of Health Level Seven International.
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Contact
Catherine Thomas
careMESH - VP of Customer Engagement