Excel Healthcare Group Identifies 2014 Healthcare Needs and Trends by Kristie Brown, Matthew Caravana, et al - HTML preview

Health Information Exchanges (HIE)

Meaningful Use has a requirement that your organization participate in a Health Information Exchange (HIE). This means that certain pieces of a patient’s record needs to be accessible by other organizations (whether they use the same EMR system as your organization or a different system). The HIE brings together disparate information and houses it in one system that can be accessed by other organizations at anytime. Some states have created an HIE for all providers in the state which is funded by the state, while other states are allowing the federal government to help fund and drive this initiative.

A great website for any organization needing help with an HIE is http://www.healthit.gov/HIE

Some of the goals for HIE, according to Health IT Gov website, include:

• Improve quality and convenience of patient care
• Increase patient participation in their care
• Improve accuracy of diagnoses and health outcomes
• Improve care coordination (Provides a basic level of interoperability among EHRs maintained by individual physicians and organizations which means if patient sees more than one provider or specialist, they all have the same information about the patient’s history)
• Increase practice efficiencies and cost savings
• Provides a vehicle for  improving quality and safety of patient care
• Help public health officials meet their commitment to the community
• Create a potential loop for feedback between health-related research and actual practice
• Facilitate efficient deployment of emerging technology and health care services
• Provide the backbone of technical infrastructure for leverage by national and State-level initiatives

One of the biggest pluses that is being touted for getting an HIE in place is examples like: If you live in California and go on vacation to North Carolina and are in a car accident that renders you unable to talk, the providers in North Carolina will be able to pull up your medical record from California and know your allergies, medications, and other pertinent medical information to allow them to treat you without causing harm.