News Feature | March 20, 2014

HIE Cuts ER Admissions 30%

Katie Wike

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

HIE Cuts ER Admissions

Consulting an HIE in the emergency room cut unnecessary admissions by 30 percent in a study by Cornell

A recent study, published in Applied Clinical Informatics and conducted by researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College, found using an HIE in the ER can reduce admission by up to 30 percent.

"New York State has made significant investments in health information exchange," said Dr. Joshua Vest, an assistant professor at Weill Cornell and the lead author on the study in a press release. "Our study shows that providing physicians, nurses and allied healthcare professionals such as physician assistants real-time access to community-wide, longitudinal health records does in fact benefit patients."

According to InformationWeek Healthcare, the study does, in fact, show that HIEs benefit patients and doctors by showing them information such as digital patient charts in one simple source. Previous test results, prescription drug information, and more can be shared across organizations and provide patient history while also preventing re-testing and conflicting medications. Researchers found admission was 30 percent less likely when doctors consulted the HIE. The estimated savings from this were more than $350,000.

However, of the more than 15,000 patients admitted to the ER in the study’s six-month period, the HIE was only consulted 2.4 percent of the time. "Yes, the level of usage was not very high, but it was consistent with what other exchanges see," said Vest. However, "when it was used, it had a beneficial effect on utilization."

He explains, “For some patients, there is clearly no need [to consult the HIE]. If someone presents with a broken arm, it's a broken arm - that wouldn't indicate a need to look up all the lab values, look up the history."

"Emergency department physicians need to treat patients every day, even when they don't have complete medical information on those patients," said Ted Kremer, head of the Rochester RHIO, which implemented the technology. "This study suggests that providing physicians with more clinical information helps prevent hospital admissions."