Reliance eHealth Collaborative Joins the Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaborative (SHIEC)

GRAND JUNCTION, CO--(Marketwired - Aug 1, 2017) - The Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaborative (SHIEC), a national trade association representing health information exchanges (HIEs), today announced Reliance HIE has become the 50^th HIE member to join. Already the largest collaborative of HIEs in the country, SHIEC continues to grow its member base to help promote secure health data sharing across the country and facilitate quality patient outcomes and care delivery.

Reliance eHealth Collaborative is a community-based HIE, originally created to serve communities throughout southern Oregon. It has grown organically to now cover much of the state as well as parts of northern California and southern Washington. As a community-based HIE, Reliance is publicly available to any organization that wishes to join.

"SHIEC's strength lies in the diversity of our membership, and I'm very excited to welcome Reliance into our group," said Pam Matthews, interim executive director for SHIEC. "Reliance has been doing some really interesting work with incorporating behavioral health and substance abuse treatment into their HIE ecosystem. We anticipate this trend continuing as HIEs support providers and their community with transitions of care and chronic care management activities. By working with HIEs who are already pioneering this field, other SHIEC members can learn from Reliance's experiences as they expand their services into this area."

SHIEC serves as a forum for HIEs to share ideas, learn from each other and even collaborate together on specific initiatives -- all of which promotes the advancement of health data exchange throughout the country.

"Operating an HIE is not easy work, but when done right, it dramatically impacts patients' experiences in clinical settings," said Erick Maddox, executive director for Reliance eHealth Collaborative. "It's very important we get this right, and there's always something to learn from our cohorts at other HIEs. SHIEC is a collaborative, noncompetitive environment where HIE's can share what they've learned. We've all had similar experiences and challenges with implementing health IT technologies, deciphering regulations, keeping customers satisfied, you name it. It's really helpful to have a community of like-minded people with common goals who understand what you're dealing with and who are willing to help each other on issues big and small."

About SHIEC

SHIEC is the national trade association of health information exchanges (HIEs) and strategic business and technology partners. Its 50-member HIE organizations manage and provide for the secure digital exchange of health data for hospitals, healthcare providers and other participants serving more than half of the U.S. patient population. As the unbiased data trustees in their communities, SHIEC member organizations are critical to advancing effective, efficient healthcare delivery locally, regionally and nationally to improve health.

For more information about SHIEC or the executive director search: info@strategichie.com.

About Reliance eHealth Collaborative

Reliance eHealth Collaborative is a health information exchange founded in 2012, originally formed by a group of hospitals and health systems in Medford Oregon to solve the problem of sharing data between their organizations and others in the region. Since its inception, Reliance has grown significantly and today has broad participation from the full range of health care settings to include behavioral health and social service organization throughout Oregon, Northern California and Southern Washington. Reliance offers HIE services to include longitudinal community health record access, HIE integrated electronic referrals access, HISP services, behavioral health data integration and exchange and data analytic services. To learn more about Reliance eHealth Collaborative, visit www.reliancehie.org.