Allina Health finds even small use of HIE can prevent care duplication, drug seeking

Minneapolis-based Allina Health’s division of applied research has published a study on its use of one health information exchange (HIE) tool that indicates that even when a HIE is used in a relatively limited fashion, it can help improve care.

The study appears in the journal Applied Clinical Informatics and examines the use of Epic System’s Care Everywhere HIE tool in EDs (emergency departments) at three of Allina’s twelve hospitals — Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis; United Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota; and Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids, Minnesota.

Care Everywhere is a tool that allows the exchange of clinical information electronically with hospitals and clinics from other health systems where that patient has received care. However, Allina Health says its providers can only use it when the patient consents to this sharing of information. Because of this and the relatively new nature of the tool, Care Everywhere was used in only 1.46 percent of ED encounters at the three Allina Health hospitals. Yet even with this limited use, Care Everywhere still prevented 560 duplicate diagnostic procedures, the researchers found.

Even more surprising given the requirement that patients consent to the sharing of information, the use of Care Everywhere identified 28 patients who were drug seekers and presumably should have known that different EDs sharing information about their behavior would work against them.

Allina’s researchers also used focus groups to determine what its physicians and clinical staff thought about Care Everywhere. They found that physicians were most enthusiastic and particularly liked when they could get access to laboratory results, imaging studies, medication lists, discharge summaries and ECG interpretations done elsewhere. The physicians expressed feeling that the health information exchange was most useful for avoiding duplicating diagnostic testing and identifying drug-seeking behavior.

"Care Everywhere has become a valuable tool as our department strives to be efficient with the patient's time and avoid repeat testing and duplicate costs," stated Paul Satterlee, M.D., an emergency medicine physician at Abbott Northwestern who helped write the study, in a press release from Allina.

Allina Health — formerly Allina Hospitals & Clinics —is a not-for-profit health care system that covers service areas in Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Besides its twelve hospitals, it includes nearly 100 clinics, 15 pharmacies and various specialty medical services, including hospice care, oxygen and home medical equipment and emergency medical transportation.