While 2023 brought much change, our mission remains the same: To improve healthcare delivery by providing a platform that enables cost-effective and secure electronic exchange of patient medical records among public and private healthcare providers and payers in L.A. County.
As we look back on this past year, we celebrate the many steps taken to bring this mission to life in new and improved ways, while also expanding our participant community and most importantly, the overall impact on health and well-being for our county’s residents. Here are a few initiatives and wins that we’re most proud of.
We were named a Qualified Health Information Organization (QHIO) by California Health and Human Services (CalHHS). This first-of-its-kind qualification signifies that by joining LANES, healthcare organizations meet the requirements of the state’s Data Exchange Framework (DxF), which defines health data sharing standards for most of the state’s healthcare organizations and is designed to help every resident in the state benefit from seamlessly coordinated care and services, regardless of where they live or receive care.
LANES adopted Google Cloud Healthcare API and BigQuery to Improve Data Interoperability and Analytics: This platform investment enabled significant advancements in capacity, interoperability and big data analytics for our participant network. The fully managed, enterprise-scale Google Cloud Healthcare API includes support for Health Level Seven International Version 2 (HL7v2), Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource (FHIR), and DICOM standards.
We grew our participant network by 143% year over year. Our network’s expansion benefits everyone in it. We saw an incredible uptick in hospitals and health systems joining our network, such as MLK Community Healthcare, to expand our critical reach. We also saw huge adoption among mental and behavioral health organizations, which furthers our ability to deliver comprehensive care coordination supporting whole person care.
We championed the progress of CalAIM. This transformational work relies on a foundation of excellent care coordination, including work to progress Enhanced Care Management (ECM). LANES’ features and capabilities were demonstrated in a case study we published this year on ECM in action at Chinatown Service Center. We also were proud to connect with community leaders at the 2023 State of Reform Southern California Policy Conference, listening and collaborating on how to improve ECM for children and youth. We supported various ECM providers, connecting MCPs, hospitals, FQHCs, DHS, DMH, BH, and CBOs. This included completing 22 PCP use cases, 2 hospital use cases, 3 behavioral health use cases, 3 health plan use cases, 2 social services/CBO use cases, and 1 post-acute use case as well as supporting DPH Public Health Nurses (for foster care) and 4 DHS agencies coordinating non-clinical services (Housing for Health Services, Intensive Care Management Services, Enriched Residential Care, Correctional Health Services).
LANES Formally Established a Data Governance Advisory Board. The inaugural board is composed of Los Angeles area healthcare leaders, who are charged with developing and supporting data governance processes. It is also responsible for helping consider and address future initiatives, such as new use cases and enforcing use case specifications and associated processing restrictions.
With 2024 bringing the first DxF deadline for some qualified entities to begin sharing information, we’re looking forward to another transformative year for health and social service data sharing in California.
