Use of HIEs has changed
Healthcare providers' use of health information exchanges (HIEs) has changed in recent years, according to a report presented to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.
The State HIE program is funded under the HITECH Act as part of the 2009 federal economic stimulus package. The program provided $564 million to help states achieve secure electronic exchange of information.
The report, from the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, looked at providers' experiences with HIEs between March 2014 and May 2014 in the following six states: Iowa, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Utah, Vermont, and Wyoming.
The researchers found providers' HIE needs have advanced beyond connecting disparate EHR systems and meeting Meaningful Use requirements. Providers now need to more easily access "actionable" data at the point of care to boost care and care coordination, such as during patient admissions and discharges; transfer alerts; interstate exchange; and services that help care coordination.
"There is a need to push for interoperability at the vendor level so that health system goals for improved patient care supported by HIE are achievable," according to the report.
Providers have experienced difficulties witih HIEs such as the following:
- A need for more sophisticated infrastructure and services;
- Competing priorities;
- Interoperability issues;
- Lack of staff with sufficient technological knowledge;
- Lack of standardization among vendors; and
- Participation costs
Read the complete report.
Editor
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.