Delivering an important Health Program portal to World Trade Center responders and survivors

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Established with the passage of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, the NIOSH World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program (WTCHP) provides medical monitoring, high-quality, compassionate healthcare, and treatment for eligible responders at the WTC and related sites. The program also includes care for recovery and cleanup workers, volunteers, and those who worked, lived, or went to school in the disaster areas. These responders and survivors receive initial screenings and treatment through seven Clinical Centers of Excellence in the New York metropolitan area and throughout the country in a Nationwide Provider Network. Since WTCHP’s inception in 2010, more than 84,000 responders and nearly 36,000 survivors have been identified and treated.

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Services provided

  • Developed strategy and collaborative approach with internal and
    external technology services partners for joint development
  • Implemented of agile and adaptable cross-platform and
    open-source frameworks
  • Expert categorization and documentation for appropriate storage
    and valuable analysis for multi-domain access

Success achieved

  • Enabling the identification and treatment of more than 84,000
    responders and 36,000 survivors
  • Supporting more than 600 Health Program Support (HPS) and
    Clinical Centers of Excellence (CCE) users daily
  • Sharing and protecting ePHI and PII in a secure and compliant,
    Web-based framework

Bridging disparate systems to support future modernization

Challenge

The WTCHP oversees and maintains legacy information from existing members and new applicants. This information includes Personally identifiable Information (PII), Protected Health Information (PHI), and other data protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

WTCHP operations were managed by multiple disparate applications ranging in form, function, and accessibility. These systems were developed quickly and did not meet the technology requirements of the program as it expanded. NIOSH needed a trusted technology services partner, one deeply rooted in its mission, to support the development of a comprehensive solution. The goal was to effectively bridge all disparate systems while supporting future modernization of WTCHP.

Approach

To address WTCHP’s current and future requirements, NIOSH needed a comprehensive solution that utilized:

  • Cross-platform and open-source frameworks optimized for modern, adaptable, and customizable backend and frontend capabilities
  • Agile workflows to meet program requirements and growth
  • Documented categorization and storage frameworks

As their trusted partner, the Maximus team developed the Centralized Accessible Real-time Enterprise (CARE) Portal, with a cross-platform, multi-client Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) as its foundation for the WTCHP. The CARE Portal allows authorized staff to perform WTCHP activities including enrollment application processing and member 9/11-related health condition certifications.

Results

The CARE Portal offers more than 600 WTCHP, Health Program Support (HPS) and Clinical Centers of Excellence (CCE) users real-time, web-based access with a centralized database. Benefits of the portal include:

  • Intuitive and responsive user experience across ubiquitous, varied devices operated in the modern workplace
  • Dynamic levels of authorization to ensure security of data
  • Streamlined and augmented processes to maximize efficiency, integrity, and timeliness
  • Secure sharing of Electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI) and PII in a HIPAA-compliant manner

The effort was awarded the 2020 FedHealthIT Innovation Award as an best practice in innovation.