CHIME Signs HHS Pledge To Improve Information Sharing

The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) pledged to work with the federal government and other industry stakeholders to implement three core principles aimed at improving health information exchange. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell formally announced the commitments made by CHIME and other industry stakeholders during her opening keynote speech at the Health Information Management Systems Society annual conference in Las Vegas.

CHIME pledged to address:

• Consumer access: For patients to be true partners in their care, they must have better access to their health information. CHIME welcomes efforts by the federal government that continue to clarify regulations surrounding information sharing and supports initiatives to remove obstacles that stand in the way of patients accessing their information. As an example, CHIME recently embarked on a partnership with OpenNotes that will greatly expand patient access to the notes that clinicians make in a health record, but that often are not available to the patient.
• Information sharing among providers: Government and the industry must address interoperability. CHIME believes that longitudinal care records should consist of provider, payer and patient-generated data and be accessible to all members of the care team. As evidenced by a CHIME-KLAS study last year on interoperability, there is growing consensus around key issues that must be addressed to improve the flow of information from one care setting to another. Foundational to driving greater interoperability and better care is the ability to accurately and consistently identify patients. CHIME is at the forefront of a national effort to find a solution to the problem of patient identification. The CHIME National Patient ID Challenge is a $1 million crowdsourcing initiative that aims to find a method for safely, accurately and privately identifying a patient 100 percent of the time. This is a key component to moving the dial forward on interoperability.
• Standards: CHIME has long championed the need for a clear set of strong and enforceable standards. An information-rich record, supported by widely adopted standards, will improve a patient’s ability to manage consent privileges and diminish privacy concerns related to digitizing their health information. CHIME will continue to work with government and other industry stakeholders to pursue the adoption of clear standards.
• “While we’ve made considerable progress digitizing the industry, we must overcome some significant barriers that impede information sharing and prevent us from realizing the full benefits of health IT,” said CHIME President and CEO Russell Branzell, FCHIME, CHCIO. “Through this pledge, CHIME and its members strengthen their resolve to transform the nation’s delivery system and improve patient care.”

A full list of organizations and their pledges is available at www.healthit.gov/commitment.

About CHIME
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 1,800 CIO members and over 150 healthcare IT vendors and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and healthcare in the communities they serve. For more information, visit www.chimecentral.org.