CareSouth Health System, Inc., a national senior living services provider based in Augusta, Ga., announced today that it now offers Direct secure messaging options for the hospitals and physicians who refer their patients to CareSouth home health services.

Direct, a product of Surescripts®, is a message transport standard that Surescripts describes as “a simple, secure, scalable, standards-based way for participants to send authenticated, encrypted health information directly to known, trusted recipients over the internet to be used for the secure and meaningful exchange between known participants in support of meaningful use.”

“CareSouth is constantly seeking new and innovative ways to improve the referral experience for our clients,” said Jon Wilder, CareSouth Chief Operations Officer. “Direct secure messaging means that our hospitals and physicians now have the opportunity to go to one place to connect with other community partners on the Surescripts network and easily exchange clinical information in a HIPAA secure environment. Direct provides an avenue of communication for many of the different kinds of content that are required to fulfill Meaningful Use Stage 2 objectives. To put it simply, Direct secure messaging means better communication and consequently, improved care coordination for our patients.”

Direct secure messaging can improve care coordination by connecting to a broad reach of healthcare provider services such as hospitals and care providers participating in a Direct Trusted Agent Accreditation Program, as well as retail clinics and pharmacies. It reduces the need for paper-based communication and faxes and eliminates the need for a separate login to a secure portal by utilizing an electronic exchange in a HIPAA secure environment.