Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

Virtual Health Village

Apps and iPads are tools of choice for improving the health of Pennsylvania schoolchildren. Lehigh Valley Health Network, in Allentown, Penn., collaborated with the Allentown and Bethlehem school districts, a local business coalition and three other health organizations—all part of the Children’s Care Alliance—to establish the Virtual Health Village. This virtual village is a health information exchange for sharing secure, up-to-date student health information between the health care partners. School nurses use iPads to access and share health information and engage students in learning about their health condition. The exchange is effectively addressing the children’s urgent health conditions, like asthma and obesity, and issues related to high mobility rates of their families. Students receive high-quality, well-coordinated care, and the exchange of health information reduces incidents of delayed care or missing information. Overall costs are reduced by preventing duplicate tests, procedures and immunizations. As of May 2015, more than 12,000 children were enrolled in the Virtual Health Village, and the alliance plans to expand coverage across regional health districts.
For more information, contact Mary Ellen Herzog, senior director of grants, at Maryellen.Herzog@lvhn.org, or Brian Nester, president and CEO, at Brian.Nester@lvhn.org. Read the complete case study.