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The Wisconsin Statewide Health Information Network (WISHIN) is transforming healthcare across Wisconsin by providing a seamless Health Information Exchange (HIE) that connects over 2,200 care sites. This robust network ensures that physicians, emergency medical services (EMS), payors, pharmacies, and home health providers have secure, real-time access to critical patient information, improving care coordination and enhancing patient outcomes.
The “WISHIN Connects” campaign highlights how WISHIN fosters better collaboration and communication across the healthcare continuum. In this blog, we explore the essential benefits WISHIN provides to six key healthcare sectors, demonstrating how it empowers healthcare professionals with the information they need to deliver high-quality, efficient care.
1. How WISHIN Connects Physicians to Better Care
For physicians, having quick and comprehensive access to patient information is essential for delivering accurate diagnoses and effective treatments. WISHIN Pulse, the community health record, consolidates data from multiple sources, ensuring that providers have a complete and up-to-date view of their patients’ medical histories.
“WISHIN has really been indispensable with its ability to provide information that we can’t obtain through our own EHR system. . . . not everyone is on Epic, and as a result . . . that information that exists in those other systems doesn’t always flow over. WISHIN has been that connector.”
Dr. Mark Lodes
Chief Medical Officer for Population Health and Medical Education at Medical College of Wisconsin
Key Benefits for Physicians:
- More Accurate Diagnoses: WISHIN provides access to laboratory results, radiology reports, medication history, and prior conditions, reducing diagnostic errors and unnecessary testing.
- Seamless Care Coordination: Physicians can securely share and retrieve patient information from other healthcare providers, improving collaboration between primary care providers and specialists.
- Greater Efficiency: WISHIN reduces the time spent tracking down patient records, allowing physicians to focus on patient care instead of paperwork.
- Reduced Redundant Testing: Having a consolidated health record minimizes duplicate lab and radiologic tests, reducing unnecessary healthcare costs and patient burden.
By leveraging WISHIN, physicians gain deeper insights into their patients’ health, leading to improved decision-making, better outcomes, and enhanced patient satisfaction.
2. How WISHIN Connects EMS to Lifesaving Information
Emergency Medical Services (EMS) operate in fast-paced, high-stakes environments where quick access to patient data can mean the difference between life and death. WISHIN ensures that EMS personnel can securely access patient histories in real time, allowing for more informed and effective pre-hospital care.
“I would absolutely recommend WISHIN to other EMS providers.”
Joshua Parish, NRP, MSc, MPH
Head of the EMS Training, Education and Wellness Bureau of the Milwaukee Fire Department
Key Benefits for EMS Providers:
- Faster, Safer Decision-Making: Access to critical patient data, such as allergies, medication lists, and chronic conditions, helps EMS teams provide the right care immediately.
- Improved Hospital Transitions: WISHIN allows EMS providers to share real-time patient information with hospitals, ensuring emergency departments are better prepared upon patient arrival.
- More Efficient Operations: Reducing the need for manual data collection and paperwork enables EMS professionals to focus more on delivering urgent care.
- Supports EMS Patient Processes: WISHIN can make available to EMS agencies hospital face sheets and outcome data that includes updated demographics, insurance information and relevant encounter data to support quality improvement programs.
With WISHIN, EMS providers gain instant access to crucial patient information, ensuring timely, informed, and life-saving interventions.
3. How WISHIN Connects Payors to More Efficient, Cost-Effective Care
For payors—including insurance companies and managed care organizations—access to accurate, timely patient data is crucial for managing claims, assessing quality, and coordinating patient care. WISHIN provides the data payors need to improve efficiency and support value-based care models.
“With WISHIN Pulse we have easy, reliable access to clinical data that will help us deliver better outcomes for our members.”
Humana
Key Benefits for Payors:
- Better Care Coordination: Real-time access to patient records enhances collaboration between payors and providers, ensuring patients receive appropriate care.
- Improved Quality Monitoring: WISHIN enables payors to track healthcare quality metrics, helping assess provider performance and identify areas for improvement.
- Lower Healthcare Costs: Access to complete patient data reduces redundant tests, hospitalizations, and unnecessary treatments, leading to more efficient use of healthcare dollars.
- Faster Claims Processing: With accurate and comprehensive patient records, claims are processed more efficiently, reducing delays and administrative burden.
By connecting payors with real-time clinical data, WISHIN supports smarter, more efficient healthcare spending while promoting patient-centered care.
4. How WISHIN Connects Pharmacies to Safer Medication Management
Pharmacies are integral to patient safety and medication adherence. By giving pharmacists access to a patient’s complete medication history and clinical records, WISHIN helps prevent medication errors and supports better patient counseling and adherence.
“I would describe WISHIN as unique and indispensable. It’s a perfect tool for pharmacies to help create value for their communities and increase their care.”
Kyle Beyer
Owner/Manager, North Shore Pharmacy
Key Benefits for Pharmacies:
- Better Medication Reconciliation: Access to a patient’s full medication history helps pharmacists identify potential drug interactions, duplicate prescriptions, and contraindications.
- More Informed Patient Counseling: With a comprehensive view of patient health data, pharmacists can provide more personalized guidance on medication use.
- Stronger Collaboration with Providers: WISHIN facilitates secure communication between pharmacists and prescribers, ensuring medication therapies align with overall treatment plans.
- More Efficient Pharmacy Operations: Reducing administrative workload allows pharmacists to focus on direct patient care rather than chasing down missing records.
Through WISHIN, pharmacies become more than just dispensers of medication—they play an active role in patient safety, education, and long-term health outcomes.
5. How WISHIN Connects Home Health Providers to Better Care at Home
Home health providers support patients with chronic conditions, post-surgical recovery, and long-term care needs. To provide effective in-home care, they need access to real-time patient information—a critical function that WISHIN delivers.
“WISHIN is extremely good at being able to find if your patient is hospitalized where they were at, exact in and out times, their doctors, medications, allergies, a lot of basic demographic information. That’s extremely important for us upon initial assessments.”
Melissa Smart, Owner
Smart Choice Personal Care, Inc.
Key Benefits for Home Health Providers:
- Assists in Medicaid Claim Verification Process: WISHIN provides a notification service to inform home health agencies of hospital encounters and/or admissions.
- Comprehensive, Personalized Care Plans: Access to hospital discharge summaries, medication lists, and physician notes enables home health providers to develop tailored care plans for each patient.
- Improved Care Transitions: WISHIN ensures that hospitals and home health agencies share patient data, reducing gaps in care and improving continuity after hospital discharge.
- Enhanced Monitoring & Early Intervention: With real-time access to patient updates, home health providers can identify warning signs of deterioration and intervene before emergency care is needed.
- Reduced Hospital Readmissions: By ensuring better post-acute care coordination, WISHIN helps prevent avoidable complications and readmissions.
With WISHIN, home health agencies are equipped with the insights needed to provide safer, more effective care in the home environment, ultimately enhancing quality of life and patient independence.
6. How WISHIN Connects Public Health to Proactive, Data-Driven Responses
Public health departments play a critical role in protecting communities, managing disease outbreaks, and promoting population health. To carry out these responsibilities effectively, public health agencies need timely, accurate, and actionable data—a need that WISHIN directly supports.
By providing real-time access to clinical data from across the healthcare spectrum, WISHIN empowers public health professionals with the tools to respond quickly to emerging health threats and monitor population-level health trends.
“WISHIN just has totally changed our process and just been so much more efficient for us and has led to much better care for the patient.”
Caitlin Stockhausen
Disease Intervention Specialist Coordinator, Milwaukee Public Health Department
Key Benefits for Public Health:
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Faster Disease Surveillance: WISHIN enables public health agencies to track reportable diseases and conditions in near real-time, improving early detection and containment of outbreaks.
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Better Epidemiological Insights: Aggregated, de-identified data from WISHIN supports trend analysis, resource planning, and health equity assessments at the community and state levels.
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Streamlined Case Investigation: Public health officials can use WISHIN data to identify patient histories, potential exposures, and high-risk individuals, expediting case management and contact tracing efforts.
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Improved Emergency Response: During public health emergencies, such as pandemics or natural disasters, WISHIN provides a reliable, centralized source of clinical data to inform response strategies and coordinate with healthcare providers.
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Support for Chronic Disease Management: Access to longitudinal health data helps public health programs design and evaluate interventions for conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and asthma—especially in underserved populations.
By connecting public health departments with comprehensive, real-time health data, WISHIN strengthens Wisconsin’s ability to protect, educate, and serve its communities. It’s a vital bridge between the clinical care world and the broader goals of public health—ensuring that every data point can become a catalyst for better health outcomes across the state.
Conclusion: WISHIN Connects Healthcare for a Stronger, Smarter System
WISHIN plays a vital role in connecting healthcare providers across Wisconsin to real-time patient information, enabling better coordination, faster decision-making, and improved patient outcomes.
Through the “WISHIN Connects” campaign, we are showcasing how WISHIN supports physicians, EMS, payors, pharmacies, home health providers, and public health—and the transformative impact that seamless health information exchange has on patient care.
As healthcare evolves, WISHIN remains committed to bridging gaps in communication, reducing inefficiencies, and ultimately creating a more connected, data-driven healthcare system.
To learn more about how WISHIN connects healthcare professionals and organizations, visit WISHIN.org.
