Health information exchange Essay

Health Information Exchange (HIE) supports both transferring and sharing of health related information that is usually stored in multiple organizations, while maintaining the context and integrity of the information being exchanged (HIE, 2014). The goal of health information exchange is to expedite access to and retrieve clinical data to provide safe efficient, effective, equitable, timelier patient-centered care (HIE, 2014). HIE “provides access and retrieval of patient information to authorized users in order to provide safe, efficient, effective, and timely patient care” (HIE, 2014).

The deployment of HIE integrated with Sutter’s EHR has transformed efficiency, safety and quality of care for their patients since reliable information pertinent to patients’ medical history can be easily shared. This is pivotal in case of emergencies, when 32% of the time providers lack adequate patient information. By accessing

Hoping to infuse a sense of functional modernity into their sprawling medical facilities, the Bacon County Hospital and Health System (BCHHS) of Alma, Georgia elected to join the Georgia Telemedicine Program (GTP) in 2005, and through the implementation of specialized informatics systems many aspects of the hospital's healthcare delivery system have since been significantly improved. Adhering to the stated mission of the BCHHS to "provide compassionate and comprehensive community healthcare that is cost effective," the multi-tiered health system which spans multiple campuses underwent the transition to electronic health records (EHR) with the goal of standardizing its procedures and streamlining its processes. According to the Georgia Partnership for Telehealth (GPT), one hallmark of the BCHHS' inclusion in the program is the hospital's status as a hub within "the Open Access Network, which is a web of statewide access points based on strategic partnerships with successful existing Telemedicine programs … to maximize opportunities for timely specialty services" (2012). One of the pillars of the cooperative relationship between the BCHHS and the GPT is the emerging field of healthcare informatics, which "brings together the various health sciences (eg, medicine, nursing, public health) and other relevant fields including information science, computer science, and cognitive science … to promote the effective organization, analysis, management, and use of information in

The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) website was very detailed and laid out. It was also very user friendly when it came to learning or finding information on health information technology. The AHIMA is the most leading association of health information management (HIM) specialists globally. The AHIMA has played a major role in leadership and in finding efficient ways for management of health data and medical records that are required to distribute quality healthcare to the patients. Furthermore, AHIMA is supporters for the HIM profession, aids as a “thought leader” in the global world of HIM. Also, AHIMA is “one of the four cooperating parties responsible for the ICD-10 Coding

Changes in current health care practices, the aging baby-boomer population, and the higher acuity of patients has created a need for change and adaptability with the health care industry. Kaiser is an organization who has shown the ability to continuously change in order to reduce costs while improving efficient quality patient care. The investment on information technology (IT) advancements such as the implantation of electronic health records (EHRs) and use of a patient portal system is one way the organization has shown readiness to meet the health care needs of patients. KP in collaboration with five other healthcare organizations created a Care Connectivity Consortium, enabling secure electronic retrieval of current

However, given our current financial struggles, most would agree that the disadvantages are a fair trade-off. The most significant disadvantage to our organization is the initial high cost investment that is necessary to build up our current IT infrastructure to be able to participate in Health Information Exchange (HIE). However, many programs exist that may help defray these costs initially.

One of the challenges of health information exchange is privacy and security. Even though having electronic health information exchange reduces a lot of privacy and security issues, it raises new issues as well. A breach that formerly affected a single paper record now can expose an entire database of patient records. At the same time, health information exchange presents powerful new ways to improve the privacy and security of patients ' data, including encryption, authentication and authorization controls, and electronic audit trails. Two of the biggest challenges we’ve encountered are patient matching/master patient index synchronization issues and the vendors’ variable use of interoperability standards. The biggest issues we’ve experienced, so far are relate to the MPI synchronization of patients across all the entities. Public HIEs, as well as the private HIE vendors, should focus on this challenge. Technically, interoperable platforms, EHR’s, are often hindered by the inability to determine an exact patient match, because the eMPI solutions aren’t robust enough. This also potentially creates data integrity and patient safety issues, if the clinical data goes across multiple records. There also some struggles with the variable use of the interoperability standards between the EHR vendors. One of

Health Information Exchange (HIE) has become a major component in today’s healthcare. Health information exchange provides a secure way for providers to appropriately access and electronically share a patient’s medical information. Therefore, reducing duplicate testing, minimizing medication errors and providing a link among electronic health records (EHR) in order to provide quality healthcare.

HIE face a range of challenges as they try to get hundreds and even thousands of participants in sharing data. Getting data in front of doctors and other clinicians is one of the biggest challenges HIEs face. Ideally, it would be delivered directly to a providers' EMR system, so when a patient goes to an outside lab for blood tests, the results would show up in the electronic record at the doctor's office, and the doctor would be notified that the results are there. However, with limited EMR use across the country, HIEs have had to provide alternative delivery methods. HIE is considered to be one of the key components of the national health IT infrastructure being established by the HITECH Act. Policymakers and health care providers believe this health IT infrastructure will produce a number of benefits, many of which are directly related to HIE.

EHR is defined in the Health Information Act (HIA)[4] as “ the interconnected electronic health

Recent reforms in health care, such as the passage of measures mandating electronic health care records, make unified public health information systems an increasingly viable option for providers, insurance companies, and care facilities. An examination of the experience of the Missouri Department of Health indicates that the construction of such a system based on information engineering has a number of benefits but only if properly implemented with prudent foresight. Some of the most valuable lessons learned that can assist other health care providers with the implementation of a similar system include protecting client confidentiality, procuring funding, sharing information with other agencies, gaining executive sponsorship, and allocating a sufficient amount of time and resources to such an undertaking.

Health Information Exchange is the electronic movement of healthcare information amongst organizations according to the national standards. HIE as it is widely known, serves the purpose of providing a safe, timely, and efficient way of accessing or retrieving patient clinical data. Health Information Exchange allows for doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other vital healthcare professionals to have appropriate access and securely share vital medical information regarding patient care. Health Information Exchange has been in efforts of developing for over 20 years in the United States. In 1990 the Community Health Management Information Systems (CHMIS) program was formed by the Hartford Foundation to foster a development of a centralized data repository in seven different geographically defined communities. Many of the communities struggled in securing a cost-effective technology with interoperable data sources and gaining political support. In the mid-1990s a similar initiative began known as the Community Health Information Networks (CHINs) with the intention of sharing data between providers in a more cost-effective manner. In 2004, the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research Health Information Technology Portfolio was funded $166 million in grants and contracts to improve the quality and safety to support more patient-centered care. This was the beginning of the progress we have seen in HIE today. Health Information Exchange devolvement serves the purpose of improving

Health information management involves the practice of maintaining and taking care of health records in hospitals, health insurance companies and other health institutions, by the use of electronic means (McWay 176). Storage of medical information is carried out by health information management and HIT professionals using information systems that suit the needs of these institutions. This paper answers four major questions concerning health information systems.

The Health information exchange or also known as HIE is the sending of healthcare-related data electronically to facilities, health information organizations and government agencies according to national standards. The goal is to be able to access and retrieve data more efficient, safer, and to improve the quality of care and patient safety and reduce healthcare costs.

A health management information system (HMIS) refers to a process of obtaining data on health, storing and processing it for the purpose of policy-making, designing, execution and appraisal of health programs. Starting from the national and down to the institutional levels,