Capital Area RHIO Development Process

(2005 - 2009)

UPDATE - 2014: As of July 2014, GLHIE is now Great Lakes Health Connect.

UPDATE - 2009: RHIO is now the Great Lakes Health Information Exchange (GLHIE). 

The Alliance’s development of the Capital Area Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO) put the Capital Area at the forefront of Health Information Exchange. (A Health Information Exchange, or HIE, allows doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other healthcare providers to easily and securely share patients’ vital medical information electronically.)

A community collaborative, the RHIO was developed by and for physicians, employers, academic institutions, hospitals, health plans, community members, public health and community mental health service providers with the support of the State of Michigan and the Federal Government. After four years of planning and implementation work and the procurement of more than $2.3 million in startup funding, the Alliance launched the RHIO as an independent not-for-profit organization in 2009.

Once deployed, the RHIO provided new medical information efficiencies and accuracy that increased health care quality, promote safety, save system costs, and save lives. It was the first functioning RHIO in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula and offered clinical data exchange and electronic prescribing in accordance with national goals to have a patient’s complete health record securely and electronically available.

The RHIO later became the Great Lakes Health Information Exchange (GLHIE), one of the largest HIEs in Michigan. In July 2014, GLHIE merged with Michigan Health Connect to become the Great Lakes Health Connect. This merger created one of the largest HIEs in the nation, allowing hospitals, physicians, and other medical professionals to quickly and securely share the health records of more than 5 million people.