Local Public Health Agencies Can Improve Operations with HIE Integration

 By Heidi Wilson

Last month, I had the opportunity to present at the NACCHO Annual Conference on the gap between health information exchanges and local public health agencies. Local public health agencies (LPHAs) are the backbone of our public health infrastructure, but they are rarely part of the conversation when it comes to real-time data exchange. This work builds on groundwork laid by Amanda Crociata, whose leadership made the Connecticut Poison Control Center (CPCC) partnership possible. 

Most HIE partnerships in the country stop at the state level, leaving the agencies closest to their communities working with outdated systems, limited funding, and no direct relationship with the patients they're trying to serve. 

Without access to real-time clinical data, local agencies miss opportunities for community-level syndromic surveillance, faster case reporting, and population-level immunization tracking, the kind of work that helps catch outbreaks early and manage chronic disease across a community rather than one patient at a time. 

Connie's partnership with CPCC at UConn Health shows what closing that gap can look like. Before the partnership, CPCC toxicologists had to rely on follow-up phone calls to hospital staff, who were often unavailable, which created delays and gaps in clinical decision-making at moments when timing matters most. Now, CPCC staff have secure, direct access to lab results, imaging reports, provider notes, and discharge summaries through the Connie portal, and it has become a daily tool across their operations. 

As a result, follow-up calls to hospitals dropped by half, freeing up time for patient care and toxicology review instead of time on hold. Provider collaboration has improved, with real-time insight enabling better communication between CPCC and emergency departments.

Public health surveillance has gotten stronger too. CPCC can now track exposure trends across opioids, synthetic cannabinoids, and environmental toxins to support statewide data. The partnership also created a scalable roadmap for other emergency response organizations, including EMS and medical examiners.  

One case captures what this new workflow looks like in practice. An 18-month-old ingested multiple Synthroid pills, and using Connie, CPCC immediately accessed real-time thyroid panel results, monitored T3 and T4 levels, and coordinated with hospital staff and the child's pediatrician across nine days of care. One of CPCC's toxicologists has called it one of the most cohesive responses of her 30-year career. 

Connie and CPCC are already looking at what comes next, including automated alerts for toxicology-related labs, integration with EMS data systems, and using HIE data to catch rare exposures, like botulism, earlier. 

Getting more local public health agencies this kind of access will take work on a few fronts: phased technical integration to handle legacy systems, sustainable funding through grants or cost-sharing models, clear data governance to build trust, and alignment across LPHAs, HIEs, and state partners. There are many paths to get there. The work with CPCC is one example of what's possible when those pieces come together. 

Want to hear more about the program directly from CPCC? Listen to Dr. Doyon discuss the partnership on TechTarget's Healthcare Strategies podcast: Improving poison response with statewide HIE. 

Interested in learning more? Reach out at info@conniect.org.