HIE progressing, but standards needed

Over the past few weeks, several announcements about interconnectivity within and between states have emerged that indicate expanding information exchange capabilities. However, the call for standards continues to be heard.

All the large hospitals in Colorado are now connected to the state’s exchange and 10 states have partnered to exchange information in the case of a natural disaster such as a hurricane.

Meanwhile, in a panel discussion on health information exchange during the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ eHealth Summit, standards were addressed.

“One of the biggest challenges is getting standards in place,” said Rachael Williams, assistant program manager, North Carolina Division of Medical Assistance of the state’s Department of Health and Human Services. For example, she said vendors are implementing continuity of care documents in different ways. “That affects the time it takes to connect a provider through the HIE. It’s hard to come up with standardized pricing if everything looks different. As the federal government pushes HIE and [creates] those protocols, it would help us at a state level come up with cost strategies we can rely on.”

The need for standards goes beyond EHR adoption, said Tyler Carruth, state health IT coordinator, Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, citing the ability to submit information such as tumor registry data in a standardized way. “We’ve seen cases where we have vendor delays due to having to configure their system. It’s not just adoption—the lag is the ability of vendors to customize and integrate.”

Despite the challenges, Carruth said that the Louisiana statewide HIE had five hospitals at the beginning of this year but plans to have 35 signed up by the end of this month.

Is your organization connected to and benefiting from an information exchange? Please share your experience.

Beth Walsh

Clinical Innovation + Technology editor