HIE survey finds continued significant investing

Hospitals and hospital systems are making significant investments in health information exchange (HIE) technologies, according to the results of the second annual survey on the topic conducted by CapSite, a research and advisory firm recently acquired by the Health Information Management and Systems Society.

CapSite founder and vice president, Gino Johnson, presented the findings during a webinar hosted by the National eHealth Collaborative. Almost 400 organizations participated in the second annual HIE study, and 95 percent were hospitals or hospital systems.

There has been a significant level of investment in HIE technologies driven, in large part, by the HITECH Act and stimulus dollars, Johnson said. Topping the list of those technologies are patient and provider indexes, authentication, XDS/document sharing and record locator systems. About 80 organizations said they recently invested in an index. Johnson also discussed investment in value-added service layers, such as e-prescribing, image viewing, physician portal, patient portal, immunization reporting and personal health records. Nearly 120 participants recently invested in e-prescribing within the context of HIE technology, Johnson said.

Seventy-one percent of respondents said they are planning on investing in new HIE technologies in the next 24 months—just a small drop from last year’s 74 percent. More than half (54 percent) of respondents said they do not plan on engaging a consulting firm as part of the HIE planning, 35 percent were unsure and 11 percent said yes.

The survey also asked participants about their vendor of choice, finding that the top vendors in this field are Epic (12 percent), Cerner (10 percent, CPSI (9 percent) and McKesson (6 percent).

It's difficult to measure the top vendors, Johnson said, because there are numerous niche providers within the market. The key takeaway, he said, is that this is a fragmented market. The HITECH Act and the stimulus funds "brought a lot of new companies into the mix. That's why you see such a fragmented market," Johnson said.  There has been some consolidation in this space and, "given the spending and activity we expect to see over next 18-24 months, we believe we'll see further consolidation."

The survey respondents said that the top reason for selecting their HIE technology vendor was because it offered an extension of the incumbent health information system at almost 70 percent, followed by reputation of the vendor. The vast majority (84 percent) said they would select the same vendor again.

When asked when he expected to see the HIE technology market start to decline, Johnson "we’re on the upward slope of the  adoption curve now. The trajectory has been pretty steep in the last two years. We expect pretty aggressive levels of adoption." After another two years, the adoption curve starts to bend and there will be further consolidation in the market, he said. With that, some products will sunset and there will be opportunities for other solution providers.

The most surprising finding from the survey is that "we expected that the planned investment would have dropped further" than from 74 percent to 71 percent. "It's surprising there is still that level of activity."