Patients Ready For HIE, Doctors Aren't

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

According to a Software Advice survey from, patients are open to HIEs but less than 40 percent say their doctors use the technology.

Is your office equipped with HIE technology? According to a recent survey from Software Advice, most patients report their doctor does not offer HIE with other facilities.

Top methods of sharing documents, according to respondents, were receiving them directly from providers (39 percent) and patients delivering the records in person (25 percent). Forty-six percent of patients said they want their doctors to be able to send medical records directly to other providers, while 21 percent preferred in-person delivery.

“Patients play a key role in moving the dial in health care innovation,” says Jitin Asnaani, executive director for CommonWell Health Alliance.

iHealth Beat reports that, when asked about their comfort level with state health information exchanges, 42 percent of respondents reporting being “moderately comfortable.” Furthermore”

• 31 percent reporting being “very comfortable”
• 17 percent reporting being “minimally comfortable”
• 10 percent reporting being “not at all comfortable”

According to Becker’s Health IT and CIO Review, despite patients being interested in and comfortable with exchanges, the vast majority (73 percent) said they don't know if their state currently operates an HIE. “Many patients are comfortable with their data being made accessible through a HIE, but don't realize they might already be able to participate in one,” according to the survey.

“Widespread change is coming,” says Sandra Vance, the senior director of interoperability initiatives for the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). “What we are striving for is system-agnostic health information exchange — and that is becoming more and more possible, as the specifications become more clear for developers and [standards] adoption grows.”