HIE data better identifies ED usage than single sites

Data from a health information exchange (HIE) can more accurately identify patients with frequent hospital emergency department (ED) visits than a single site's records, according to research published in Health Affairs.

Researchers studied 10 hospitals in the New York City metropolitan area participating in the New York Clinical Health Information Exchange (NYCLIX), a regional HIE, and those patients who visited an ED four or more times within 30 days during the study period.

Compared to site-specific information, the HIE data found a significantly higher number of frequent ED users (20.3 percent), more visits by them to the ED (16 percent), and also revealed that 29 percent of frequent ED users visited multiple EDs during the 12-month study period, versus 3 percent of all ED users.

"An improved ability to identify frequent ED users allows better targeting of case management and other services that can improve frequent ED users' health and reduce their use of costly emergency medical services," the authors wrote.