Connect to the Network2023-01-31T04:51:34-06:00

Connect to the Network

Organizations struggle to match patients and locate their health records as they move through care settings. Whether a person resides in one location or moves throughout her lifetime, a person’s health records reside in disparate health IT systems and care settings.

The CommonWell nationwide network and services enable organizations to:

Find

Match a patient within the CommonWell network and locate their health records across disparate systems.

Select

View a list of previous clinical visits and select only those documents they want to access.

Access

Securely access patient clinical data at a nationwide scale from within the practitioner’s native health IT system.

CommonWell Services

CommonWell Services aim to enable health care providers to manage patient identity, link patients across organizations, and facilitate secure data access and exchange beyond one’s own system or community. Our services are essential to the exchange of health data along the care continuum. Contributor members are committed to ensuring provider access to the data is built into their technology.

Permitted Purposes for Data Exchange

CommonWell enables participants on the network to use the services for the following permitted purposes to exchange data:

  • Treatment
    • Care coordination
    • Proxy data exchange, e.g., minors, incapacitated adults
    • Other treatment purposes per local and federal law
  • Patient Access
    • Patient portal
    • PHR
    • Patient-facing apps
  • Payment and Health Care Operations
    • Payers & Health Plans
    • Data Retrieval Service Vendors

See How Our Services Work

How to Get CommonWell Services

While CommonWell Services are in use at thousands of clinical locations nationwide, we are always looking to expand our services through new health IT vendors and have more provider organizations adopt and leverage our services in their everyday practice. We hope you will join us!

Provide CommonWell Services

I want to build CommonWell Services into my software and provide it as an interoperability solution for my clients.

Join CommonWell today as a Service Adopter!

Utilize CommonWell Services

I want to use CommonWell Services at my practice or offer CommonWell Services to my clinical staff.

CommonWell Services can only be secured through one of our participating members. See who has CommonWell Connected Products now available.

Carequality Connectivity

In addition to sharing health data across the thousands of providers on the CommonWell Network, now CommonWell-enabled providers have the opportunity to connect to providers accessible through the Carequality Framework.

Service Providers

Technology Service Provider

Change Healthcare is inspiring a better healthcare system. It is a healthcare technology solutions company that uniquely champions the improvement of all the points before, after and in-between care episodes. With its customers and partners, Change Healthcare is creating a stronger, better coordinated, increasingly collaborative and more efficient healthcare system that enables better patient care, choice and outcomes at scale.

Operational Service Provider

DataFile Exchange is committed to promoting and servicing the automated exchange of protected health information (PHI). Building upon its extensive industry knowledge of the evolution from paper medical records to the digital exchange of PHI, DataFile Exchange supports providers, data retrieval vendors, records copiers and EHR vendors expanding from digital to automated exchange of health information beyond the treatment use case.

Certifications

HITRUST CSF Certification

The CommonWell Health Alliance system has earned Certified status for information security by HITRUST.

HITRUST CSF® Certified status demonstrates that the CommonWell system has met key regulations and industry-defined requirements and is appropriately managing risk. This achievement places us in an elite group of organizations worldwide that have earned this certification. By including federal and state regulations, standards, and frameworks, and incorporating a risk-based approach, the HITRUST CSF helps organizations address these challenges through a comprehensive and flexible framework of prescriptive and scalable security controls.

Frequently Asked Questions

If you have more questions,  visit our FAQ page.

What are the service profiles and technology standards that CommonWell utilizes?2023-03-27T15:19:16-05:00

CommonWell leverages existing standards that members use to enable scalable, secure and reliable interoperability. Our service provider has built access to the services using the incumbent IHE standards (e.g., PIX for patient identity, XCA and XDS.b for locating and retrieving patient data) as well as the more modern HL7 FHIR-based standards (i.e., RESTful interfaces, such as the IHE MHD profile), thus allowing members to choose their preferred approach to connect to the network. Learn more at specification.commonwellalliance.org.

How are CommonWell services different than those offered by other vendors and groups?2023-03-27T14:20:54-05:00

CommonWell Health Alliance was one of the first vendor-led, health IT interoperability initiatives of its kind. CommonWell members build the capability to exchange health data into their software, which enables health care practitioners to work within their existing workflows.

From a solution-specific perspective, CommonWell services focus on solving the foundational needs of record location, patient record matching and linking, as well as federated query of data at national scale. CommonWell services collectively allow individuals and caregivers to find and access records associated with a patient regardless of where the care was delivered.

The combination of network scale and the use of a Record Locator Service (RLS) is an important distinction for CommonWell. The RLS allows a provider organization linked to CommonWell to search the entire nationwide network in real time to gather comprehensive patient data—not just data from a limited geofenced location as other networks and frameworks offer. Watch to learn more.

No single vendor can solve industry-wide interoperability on its own, which is why CommonWell relies on its diverse membership to improve interoperability nationwide.

Does CommonWell Health Alliance maintain a central copy of people’s clinical records?2023-03-27T14:21:36-05:00

No, CommonWell does not maintain a central copy of clinical records. That data remains within the provider HIT system where it was collected. CommonWell services will provide identification and matching that facilitate trusted data sharing among member systems.

What type of health data is exchanged?2023-03-27T14:22:05-05:00

Currently, CommonWell facilitates the exchange of structured chart and encounter data, formatted as Consolidated-Clinical Document Architecture (CCDA) documents. CommonWell also enables the sharing of clinical narratives and notes. Other types of health data (e.g., Advanced Directives) are expected to be shared over time.

Does CommonWell sell data?2023-03-27T14:22:33-05:00

No. Neither CommonWell nor its service provider are allowed to sell data that is transmitted with the CommonWell services.

If the care provider’s EHR developer is participating, how can that provider begin to benefit from Alliance members’ services?2023-03-27T14:23:00-05:00

Contact your EHR vendor representative to be notified when CommonWell services will be available. Care providers contract directly with health IT suppliers for the EHRs and other health technology services to ensure accurate patient data collection and improved patient outcomes.

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What if the care provider works with more than one member of the Alliance?2023-03-27T14:23:26-05:00

Care providers might utilize multiple products that are connected to CommonWell Services, enabling access to their patient’s records in multiple systems.

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