HIE data better identifies ED usage than single sites
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.
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.