HIE Use Eliminates Unnecessary Tests, Saves Millions

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

Eliminating one type of redundant testing would have saved western New York’s health system more than $1 million

If physicians in Western New York’s HEALTHeLINK health exchange had taken the time to double check the HIE system, practices in that region could have saved more than $1 million in just 18 months. According to Healthcare IT News, utilizing the HIE’s lab data and avoiding an astounding amount of redundant CT scans could have eliminated the unnecessary spending.

In a white paper, Study of Duplicate CT Scans Show Promise of Health Information Exchange, HEALTHeLINK found:

• approximately 90 percent of the 2,763 potentially unnecessary duplicative CT scans were ordered by physicians who either never or infrequently used HEALTHeLINK
• about 50 percent of the patients who had a duplicative CT scan had already consented to have their information accessed through HEALTHeLINK by their treating providers
• more than 95 percent of the identified potentially unnecessary CT scans were done in a hospital setting
• the lost opportunity to utilize HEALTHeLINK before ordering a CT scan could have resulted in savings in the health system of approximately $1.3 million

"These findings demonstrate the value an HIE provides by reducing the number of unnecessary tests which saves time, money and radiation exposure to our patients," said Dr. David Scamurra, pathologist, Eastern Great Lakes Pathology/X-Cell Laboratories and HEALTHeLINK chairman in a press release. "The technology provided by HEALTHeLINK can be used to address these issues on many fronts as Western New York's hospitals work to maximize the implementation and use of the HIE in emergency departments, on patient floors and in clinics, and doctors do the same in their private physician offices."

According to Health Data Management, the amount of unnecessary scans is now the subject of another HEALTHeLINK study. "We erred on being extremely conservative in our analysis, so we believe that the potential unnecessary radiation exposure to patients and cost savings to the health system could be significantly more," said Daniel E. Porreca, HEALTHeLINK's executive director. "The premise of investing in health information technology and health information exchange is to enable a patient's health data, with their consent, to be shared through an HIE in order to improve the patient's quality of care, the patient's health, and in the process lowering the cost of care for the community.

“We believe this study shows that we are on the right track and renews our resolve to ensure doctors can efficiently and in a user friendly way use the information that is available to them in order to better treat their patients."