Health Information Exchange Benefits

Benefits of a Health Information Exchange

The benefits of a health information exchange are usually apparent to many participants. However, many people to not fully understand what an HIE is nor do they recognize any particular value to them after it was described.

There are several reasons that stand out as to why an organization might wish to join in a Health Information Exchange initiative.

The most frequent benefits discussed are:

Better continuity of care for patients
Easy access to a more complete and accurate health record
Improve patient outcomes and quality of care
Decreased medical treatment errors
Ability to reconcile medications
Reduction in duplicate procedures/labs
Lower costs and increased staff efficiencies

Concerns of a Health Information Exchange

In addition to the perceived benefits of HIE, many participants often express concerns about exchanging patient information. These concerns include:

Trust
Current state and national economic situation
Conservative nature of the Legislature
Oil boom
Initial and on-going costs
Competitive advantage
Financial needs of rural communities
Lack of input from Tribes
Ownership of the data
HIPAA security and breach of confidentiality
Integration of disparate systems
Ease of use
Implementation
Staff training
Redundancy and Connectivity
Interstate care

Initial HIE Offerings

In regard to the question, ”If HIE had to be done in stages, what are data elements you would desire in the first release?” The data elements commonly citied as most desirable in the first stage of launching a health information exchange include: