HealthlinkNY names Romeo executive director

HealthlinkNY has appointed Staci Romeo as the organization’s executive director, after having served in the role on an interim basis since Jan. 1.

She had previously served as the organization’s comptroller and, most recently, senior vice president, the organization said in a May 31 news release.

Romeo replaces Christina Galanis, who had served as president and CEO of HealthlinkNY. Galanis departed the organization in December to become president of an organization called WOMBA in New York City.

HealthlinkNY operates the health-information exchange (HIE) connecting providers and patients in 13 counties in the Southern Tier, Hudson Valley, and Catskills regions of New York. It has offices in Binghamton and Hopewell Junction in Dutchess County, according to its website.

“Staci stepped in to ensure that HealthlinkNY did not miss a beat after the change in leadership, and then quickly executed several initiatives that have led to rapid growth of our health-information exchange,” Dr. Rajesh Davé, chairman of the HealthlinkNY board of directors, said in the release. “She developed a vision for this organization’s future, and a solid plan to get us there.”

Under Romeo’s leadership, HealthlinkNY renewed its focus on the “customer,” or the providers who use the HIE to view their patients’ medical histories. Through the HIE, they can connect to their patients’ other health-care providers.

To make the HIE more “provider-friendly,” Romeo reorganized staff to create a unit dedicated to serving existing provider users; expanded the group dedicated to adding new providers; and moved HealthlinkNY’s help-desk group so the chief-information officer can supervise it. HealthlinkNY has also started offering providers “generous incentives to connect and contribute data,” per the release.

“We want providers to sign up and use the HIE,” Romeo said. “The underlying mission of HealthlinkNY is to make people and communities healthier. When providers can see their patient’s complete health picture, and when they can have quick, easy, and secure access to the health records they need from the patient’s other providers, then health-care quality is improved, health-care costs are reduced, and the patient receives the best treatment possible. That’s what makes this job so fulfilling.”

About the HealthlinkNY

The HealthlinkNY HIE offers electronic access to patients’ community-wide health records and serves as the region’s access point to the Statewide Health Information Network of New York (SHIN-NY), “supporting collaboration” between health-care providers across the state.

The SHIN-NY connects eight regional networks, “or qualified entities (QEs), which allow participating health-care professionals, with patient consent, to quickly access electronic-health information and securely exchange data with any other participant in the state,” according to the website of the New York City–based New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC).

HealthlinkNY is funded by the nonprofit NYeC (pronounced “nice”).

NYeC works with the New York State Department of Health to “improve health care by collaboratively leading, connecting, and integrating health information exchange (HIE) across the state,” according to its website

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com

Photo credit: HealthlinkNY website