Health Provider Network

https://commerce.health.state.ny.us/hpn

Information for Physicians

HPN Background - Since 1998, the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) internet based communications infrastructure has provided highly secure and efficient exchange of reporting, surveillance, statistical, and general information with its public health and health provider partners. The Health Provider Network (HPN) is a HIPAA compliant system that currently supports reporting and information interchange pertaining to vital records and registries, disease surveillance and response, and health facilities management.The HPN is also used by the NYSDOH as its principal means for disseminating and gathering important and sensitive information and data regarding bioterrorism preparedness, surveillance and response.

Use of the HPN has benefited healthcare providers in that it:

1. provides simple and immediate access to important information products that may be updated on a continuous basis;
2. employs a number of network level safeguards to provide secure electronic transit of sensitive and confidential data;
3. simplifies and expedites reporting processes;
4. facilitates immediate access to a provider’s own data for analysis and compiling summary statistics needed for ongoing operations;
5. protects data stored on central servers from the view of all but those individuals specifically authorized to access these data.

HPN user organizations include New York State, New York City, and county health departments; hospitals, nursing homes, laboratories, pharmacies; social service, physicians, managed care and various emergency service organizations.

Health Alert Network - This special section of the HPN contains information about disaster preparedness, specifically bioterrorism preparedness and response. Information on the different biological and chemical agents, which may be used during a terrorist event as well as planning information, and a library containing various articles and web-site links.

Physician’s Page - This page contains the Physician Profile, which allows physicians to complete, review and update their Physician Profile Information. Access to this is restricted to MDs and DOs licensed and registered in NYS. Other helpful information on the Physician Page is Communicable Disease Fact Sheets, New York State Community Health Data Set, and NYS Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System (SPARCS) data Query System.

Data Retrieval - This allows for retrieval of data from Electronic Clinical Laboratory Reporting System (ECLRS), NYS SPARCS Data, and NYS Community Health Data Set.

Data Submission - Applications accessed under this link allow for electronic upload or form based submission of data and reports to various programs of the Health Department such as Center for Environmental Health’s Congenital Malformation Registry, Office of Managed Care, NYS SPARCS Data, and the Division of Epidemiology’s Electronic Clinical Laboratory Reporting (ECLRS) and Emergency Room Surveillance systems.

Programs - This link allows providers to view information and documents for various department of health programs such as the Cancer Registry, Child Health Plus, Chronic Disease Prevention, Division of Health Care Finance, Infection Control, Laboratory Reporting, New York Patient Occurrence Reporting and Tracking System (NYPORTS), Office of Managed Care, and Office of Medicaid Management.

Special Topics - This section contains information that’s important but may cross boundaries of program areas of the Health Department. This includes New York Sate Community Health Data Set and West Nile Virus Information.

HPN Directories and the NYSDOH Communication Directory - This link allows physicians to get information such as phone numbers, addresses and e-mail addresses of other HPN users, Health Department and Health Care facilities in NYS. It has a search engine so it makes it easy to find individuals. The NYSDOH Communications Directory is a new enhancement of the HPN directory system and is a directory of contact information for state and county health departments and healthcare providers that will be continuously updated and accessible to HPN users. Accurate contact information, essential for timely delivery of important information for normal business needs or for crisis situations will be maintained in this directory. The directory will help maintain reliable and accurate information to support sending of important information or alerts to healthcare providers through fax, email, beeper, or phone calls. It will also allow the health provider to maintain his own contact information for emergency notification.

Secure Discussion Forum – This application is used by HPN users to develop online secure discussions around specific topics and to limit the discussion to a specific membership of their choosing. The confidentiality of discussion content is completely protected from view of unintended readers. Individuals may share files of any file-type (video, audio, html, text, etc.) securely within the forum, again overcoming the risks to the confidentiality of the content through faxing or posting by email.