Five Steps To Building A Successful Health Information Exchange

This white paper provides insider tips to creating an HIE that improves clinical integration; enhances patient safety; and achieves enterprise, community, and statewide healthcare connectivity.

As a concept, health information exchange (HIE) is currently on the fast track nationally. As an organizational strategy in health systems, however, it is just beginning to receive the attention it deserves as a core enterprise architecture to support clinical integration. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is a key driver. One of the criteria for meeting Stage 1 Meaningful Use requirements is demonstrating readiness for the electronic exchange of health information.

Fortunately, CIOs are in a unique position to develop cohesive HIE strategies for their organizations. Through the use of an HIE, CIOs can enhance and control the speed of deployment for EHR adoption—thus reducing chart abstraction time—regardless of regional or state initiatives. Enterprises should plan now for participation in HIE at three levels: private, regional, and national exchanges.

Because of the significant clinical and cultural transformation required, organizations cannot afford a wait-and-see attitude toward HIE; achieving community connectivity will be more complex than the "cloud connection" to some central repository that many envision. In addition, achieving a "meaningful" exchange of information to support care transitions across the healthcare delivery system will require the enforcement of enterprise standards that do not yet exist at the public HIE level.

Drawing on the knowledge and experience encountered by several large regional and national health systems regarding private, community, and state HIE connectivity, this white paper summarizes the benefits gained from moving toward a multi-layered architecture that enables HIE at multiple levels. Most importantly, the paper is designed to assist you in developing your own HIE strategies for deployment at the private level, connection at the regional level, and influence at the state and national levels. To help illustrate key steps in HIE strategy development, a case study on the experiences of BJC Healthcare is featured. Access This Content To Read This White Paper In Its Entirety.