Physicians and Health Information Exchange (HIE) The Value of HIE to a Physician’s Practice and Consumers

© eHealth Initiative & Foundation, Today’s Reality… You are seeing a new patient on referral from their primary care provider. When you ask the patient why they are there to see you, the patient replies: “Didn’t my doctor send all the papers? My doctor said there was something wrong with my liver on the ultrasound and lab tests- I just don’t remember the name- it was complex…. I talked to the nurse yesterday and they said all the information had been faxed to you.”

© eHealth Initiative & Foundation, What is Health Information Exchange… Health information exchange (HIE): The mobilization of healthcare information electronically within a region or community. Facilitate access to and retrieval of clinical data across organizations to provide safer, more timely, and efficient patient-centered care.

© eHealth Initiative & Foundation, Value of HIE for Your Patients: Communication Improved communication and information access leads to improved patient care  HIE can provide an infrastructure for care coordination  HIE provides a method to enhance the physician- patient dialogue and relationship

© eHealth Initiative & Foundation, Value of HIE to Your Patients: Practical Value The ability to better manage their personal health information and records Your doctor may be able to access your medical record from another provider If your doctor can retrieve your medical record electronically, there is less risk of your chart not reaching the doctor, hospital, etc. in time for your appointment. It provides another method to retrieve critical information such as test results and prescription history from other physicians or labs

© eHealth Initiative & Foundation, Value of HIE to Your Patients: Personal Health Quality Value Health Information Exchange can create an infrastructure for health team management  Better access to your health information increases your ability to receive the care you need, specific to your health and medical conditions ► Health care providers involved with your care can have access to the information they need to know, when they need to know it.  More information to choose the best doctor for you and your family

© eHealth Initiative & Foundation, Value of HIE to Your Patients: Value to Patient’s Family Members If your family member is in an emergency and cannot provide their health history, HIE can provide vital health details when your family member may need it most (especially when you cannot be there to provide the information).

© eHealth Initiative & Foundation, Value of HIE to Your Patients: Dollars and Sense Value Health Information Exchange has the potential to:  Reduce duplicative testing, administrative burdens, and other barriers to cost-effective health care  Get more from your health care dollar  Improve efficiency in patient health care delivery (less time waiting) and communications with the health care system means more time for your personal life and family

© eHealth Initiative & Foundation, Value of HIE to Your Patients: Patient Portals Health information provided to the patient for viewing and/or updating of their information.  Provide opportunities for patients to more actively participate in their healthcare  Patient access to their personal health information contained in the health care system

© eHealth Initiative & Foundation, What do patient’s have to say about electronic health information exchange… “Great way for health information to get from doctor to doctor to improve treatment” “It gives your doctor and hospital the ability to treat you faster. It may save our lives one day” “Duplication of information wastes money, … ability to access information myself.” “All of my doctors would have access to all of my records. HIE would help everyone participating in the event of a disaster.” eHealth Initiative, Public Opinion Strategies, E-Health 2006 Focus Groups

© eHealth Initiative & Foundation, Value of HIE to You and Your Practice: Health Safety and Quality Value Integration of encounter / visit information across providers to provide a comprehensive view of patient history across the inpatient-outpatient continuum HIE has the potential to:  Decrease amount of time access to real-time results  Access results ordered by other providers  Reduce administrative costs

© eHealth Initiative & Foundation, Value of HIE to You and Your Practice: Health Safety and Quality Value Continuity of medical information back to primary care home/medical provider Increased accuracy and complete patient health information at the point of care decreases risk of medication or treatment errors

© eHealth Initiative & Foundation, Value of HIE to You and Your practice: Communication Improved communication and information access leads to improved patient care  Creating the infrastructure for coordinated care along the entire care continuum and improved relationships with all care givers  A method to enhance the physician-patient dialogue and relationship

© eHealth Initiative & Foundation, Value of HIE to You and Your Practice: Practical Value The ability to better manage health information and records Reduces time searching for paper test results, referral letters, old medical records from other practices New patients: opportunity to have more data at time of first visit, can include background meds, labs, hospital summaries, tests at Electronic documentation and routing allows for a better sense of what has happened and when

© eHealth Initiative & Foundation, What do physicians have to say about electronic health information exchange… “Ease of exchange of information about patients…minimizes waste and repetition of tests.” “Completeness, sharing of information. Providing accurate information that patients can’t recall.” eHealth Initiative, Public Opinion Strategies, E-Health 2006 Focus Groups

© eHealth Initiative & Foundation, HIE: Becoming Involved As local and regional health information exchange initiatives are created and mature, your voice as a clinician matters. HIE functions are ultimately most valuable to clinicians when they are crafted in a manner for productive use.

© eHealth Initiative & Foundation, HIE: Becoming Involved When becoming involved with health information exchange, bring the clinicians perspective and advocate for applications that are: 1.Reliable- consistently has correct and timely patient information 2.Relevant- information available makes an impact on clinical decision making 3.Integrated into work flow- builds on clinician work routine, not cumbersome extra steps

For more information, please contact: Engaging Physicians in Health Information Exchange