FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 17, 2022
Contact: Reba Lean, Public Relations Manager
Phone: 907-443-9674
Nome, Alaska – Sharing health data between Norton Sound Health Corporation and other health care facilities is about to become easier. NSHC’s electronic health record, Cerner, is now a partner with CommonWell Health Alliance. CommonWell is a national network of organizations aligned to streamline the secure sharing of health data with the goal of improving care coordination and health outcomes at all member locations.
While NSHC’s patient records are already accessible at other Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium sites, this new partnership will make records easier to access at additional sites across the nation going forward. This will save valuable time for patients and providers, in addition to helping provide comprehensive, coordinated, and improved care.
Beginning Jan. 18, if you are seen at NSHC, you will be enrolled in CommonWell. Patients will have the ability to opt out of the service by speaking with NSHC registration personnel at their local clinic. Medical records from that date forward will be available to other CommonWell member locations that patients have also opted into when a provider requests them.
There may be a time when a patient needs to visit an emergency room somewhere far from home. In that instance, being a part of the CommonWell platform will allow providers to instantly pull information, including allergies, medications and health problems, that will save time in providing that patient’s care.
NSHC is part of a movement across the country that has been paving its way toward a more secure and smooth process of sharing records, which both preserves patients’ health information and improves care. NSHC is excited to join this alliance of health care providers and to help remove the complicated barriers and steps to sharing needed health information.
