Data Integrity Essential In Health Information Exchange

AHIMA white paper examines key role HIM professionals play in this important trend

Health Information Exchanges (HIE) can give authorized users the ability to exchange health information quickly and accurately to enhance patient safety and improve efficiency. HIEs have the potential to dramatically improve patient care while reducing duplication record rates and system inefficiencies.

As part of AHIMA’s Thought Leadership Series, a new white paper,“Ensuring Data Integrity in Health Information Exchange,” details how health information management (HIM) professionals add critical value in the development of data integrity and quality standards in HIEs.

“In today’s electronic healthcare environment, HIM professionals’ knowledge of HIPAA privacy and security rules will play an instrumental role in the proper planning and implementation of HIEs,” said AHIMA’s CEO Lynne Thomas Gordon, MBA, RHIA, CAE, FACHE. “This is just one example of the way the role of the HIM professional continues to evolve and expand.”

Since poor data and information can lead to errors and adverse incidents in healthcare, the paper encourages HIM professionals to proactively join HIE leadership in developing policy and procedures and lead initiatives to make sure health data are accurate, complete, relevant and up to date. HIM professionals can monitor for HIPAA privacy rule amendment requirements for the source organizations and the HIE.

Additional recommendations include:

• To ensure the accurate selection of a specific patient, individual healthcare organizations should establish acceptance criteria, performance metrics and baseline of patient identification practices as part of the internal review process.
• Mechanisms must be clearly established to provide oversight and accountability of HIE to protect the public interest.
• All participants within the HIE should understand how and when corrections will be made to the HIE and the impact those corrections can have on the patient’s records.

About AHIMA
Representing more than 64,000 specially educated Health Information Management professionals in the United States and around the world, the American Health Information Management Association is committed to promoting and advocating for high quality research, best practices and effective standards in health information and to actively contributing to the development and advancement of health information professionals worldwide. For more information, visit www.ahima.org