Healthcare Access San Antonio, a Texas-based health information exchange, is expanding its operation to include 22 additional counties by aligning with the Arlington–based North Texas Accountable Healthcare Partnership.
Currently, the NTAHP services 11 counties, 11,700 physicians, 137 hospitals and over 6.5 million people. The HASA currently connects more than 1.6 million patients.
"This merger is a major milestone for Texas in that patients in need of emergency medical care may be hours away from home and still can have their medical history available," Gijs Van Oort, HASA's executive director, said in a statement. "With the Corpus Christi region already sharing patient information on the same platform, the expanded HIE will be able to connect patients and doctors at opposite ends of the I35 corridor where each day hundreds of thousands of people travel from one city to the other."
Combined, the two groups will incorporate more than 8.1 million patient medical records into the exchange, which is now one of eight HIEs in Texas.