Establishment of a Health Information Data Exchange in Pima County: Justice - Health Integration

A disconnect exists between medical treatment in corrections settings and transition to community care, making reentry of offenders into the community more difficult, particularly for those with behavioral health designation and treatment history. There are many effective strategies to mitigate this gap in treatment, all of which require collaboration between the corrections setting, associated care agencies and community partners.

An effective, expedited means of exchanging information among stakeholders is vital to a seamless transition of care.  This health information exchange (HIE) will promote health care planning while in a corrections setting, improve the efficacy of community care coordination with behavioral health providers, and subsequently reduce recidivism and associated expense to the community.

To reduce the identified gaps in behavioral health treatment history and associated care between the criminal justice system and health and human services partners, Pima County was presented with an opportunity to collaborate on a national project to create a HIE connecting inter-agency justice and health stakeholders. This HIE exchanges pertinent behavioral health treatment information between the Regional Behavioral Health Authority and the Medical Provider within the corrections settings, to better facilitate care to detainees and replaces formerly manual query process.

Establishing the Pima County justice-health data sharing infrastructure has enabled County agency partners to deploy the first such justice-health information exchange for purposes of detainee continuity of care, utilizing NIEM and GRA solutions-based architecture.  It is expected that the efficient and real-time exchange of behavioral health information will facilitate improved care coordination and seamless transition to community care, reducing risk of recidivism and associated costs.