scholarly journals Assessing payer perspectives on health information exchange

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dori A Cross ◽  
Sunny C Lin ◽  
Julia Adler-Milstein
Keyword(s):  
Health Information ◽  
Clinical Data ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Data Exchange ◽  
Health Information Exchange ◽  
The United States ◽  
Current Approach ◽  
Use Cases ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Care Plans

Abstract Objective To identify factors that impede payer engagement in a health information exchange (HIE), along with organizational and policy strategies that might effectively address the impediments. Materials and Methods Qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with leaders from 17 varied payer organizations from across the country (e.g., large, national payers; state Blues plans; local Medicaid managed care plans). Results We found a large gap between payers’ vision of what optimal HIE should be and the current approach to HIE in the United States. Notably, payers sought to be active participants in HIE efforts – both providing claims data and accessing clinical data to support payer HIE use cases. Instead, payers were often asked by HIE efforts only to provide financial support without the option to participate in data exchange, or, when given the option, their data needs were secondary to those of providers. Discussion Efforts to engage payers in pursuit of more robust and sustainable HIE need to better align their value proposition with payer HIE use cases. This will require addressing provider concerns about payer access to clinical data. Policymakers should focus on creating the conditions for broader payer engagement by removing common obstacles, such as low provider engagement in HIE. Conclusion Despite variation in the extent to which payers engaged with current HIE efforts, there was agreement on the vision of optimal HIE and the facilitators of greater payer engagement. Specific actions by those leading HIE efforts, complemented by policy efforts nationally, could greatly increase payer engagement and enhance HIE sustainability.

scholarly journals Preparing Nursing Homes for the Future of Health Information Exchange

2015 ◽  
Vol 06 (02) ◽  
pp. 248-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Rantz ◽  
C. Galambos ◽  
A. Vogelsmeier ◽  
M. Flesner ◽  
L. Popejoy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nursing Homes ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Health Information Exchange ◽  
Use Cases ◽  
Personal Health Information ◽  
Personal Health ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Resident Care ◽  
External Stakeholders

SummaryObjective: Our purpose was to describe how we prepared 16 nursing homes (NHs) for health information exchange (HIE) implementation.Background: NH HIE connecting internal and external stakeholders are in their infancy. U.S. initiatives are demonstrating HIE use to increase access and securely exchange personal health information to improve patient outcomes.Method: To achieve our objectives we conducted readiness assessments, performed 32 hours of clinical observation and developed 6 use cases, and conducted semi-structured interviews with 230 participants during 68 site visits to validate use cases and explore HIE.Results: All 16 NHs had technology available to support resident care. Resident care technologies were integrated much more with internal than external stakeholders. A wide range of technologies were accessible only during administrative office hours. Six non-emergent use cases most commonly communicated by NH staff were: 1) scheduling appointments, 2) laboratory specimen drawing, 3) pharmacy orders and reconciliation, 4) social work discharge planning, 5) admissions and pre-admissions, and 6) pharmacy-medication reconciliation. Emerging themes from semi-structured interviews about use cases included: availability of information technology in clinical settings, accessibility of HIE at the point of care, and policies/procedures for sending/receiving secure personal health information.Conclusion: We learned that every facility needed additional technological and human resources to build an HIE network. Also, use cases help clinical staff apply theoretical problems of HIE implementation and helps them think through the implications of using HIE to communicate about clinical care.Citation: Alexander GL, Rantz M, Galambos C, Vogelsmeier A, Flesner M, Popejoy L, Mueller J, Shumate S, Elvin M. Preparing nursing homes for the future of health information exchange. Appl Clin Inf 2015; 6: 248–266http://dx.doi.org/10.4338/ACI-2014-12-RA-0113

scholarly journals Maturity assessment of Kenya’s health information system interoperability readiness

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. e100241
Author(s):  
Job Nyangena ◽  
Rohini Rajgopal ◽  
Elizabeth Adhiambo Ombech ◽  
Enock Oloo ◽  
Humphrey Luchetu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Information ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Working Group ◽  
Data Exchange ◽  
Enterprise Architecture ◽  
Health Information Exchange ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Health Information System ◽  
Maturity Level ◽  
Technical Standards

BackgroundThe use of digital technology in healthcare promises to improve quality of care and reduce costs over time. This promise will be difficult to attain without interoperability: facilitating seamless health information exchange between the deployed digital health information systems (HIS).ObjectiveTo determine the maturity readiness of the interoperability capacity of Kenya’s HIS.MethodsWe used the HIS Interoperability Maturity Toolkit, developed by MEASURE Evaluation and the Health Data Collaborative’s Digital Health and Interoperability Working Group. The assessment was undertaken by eHealth stakeholder representatives primarily from the Ministry of Health’s Digital Health Technical Working Group. The toolkit focused on three major domains: leadership and governance, human resources and technology.ResultsMost domains are at the lowest two levels of maturity: nascent or emerging. At the nascent level, HIS activities happen by chance or represent isolated, ad hoc efforts. An emerging maturity level characterises a system with defined HIS processes and structures. However, such processes are not systematically documented and lack ongoing monitoring mechanisms.ConclusionNone of the domains had a maturity level greater than level 2 (emerging). The subdomains of governance structures for HIS, defined national enterprise architecture for HIS, defined technical standards for data exchange, nationwide communication network infrastructure, and capacity for operations and maintenance of hardware attained higher maturity levels. These findings are similar to those from interoperability maturity assessments done in Ghana and Uganda.

Regional and Community Health Information Exchange in the United States

2011 ◽  
pp. 198-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adi V. Gundlapalli ◽  
Jonathan H. Reid ◽  
Jan Root ◽  
Wu Xu
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Patient Care ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Health Information Exchange ◽  
Business Case ◽  
The United States ◽  
Healthcare Systems ◽  
Secure Information

A fundamental premise of continuity in patient care and safety suggests timely sharing of health information among different providers at the point of care and after the visit. In most healthcare systems, this is achieved through exchange of written medical information, phone calls and conversations. In an ideal world, this exchange of health information between disparate providers, healthcare systems, laboratories, pharmacies and payers would be achieved electronically and seamlessly. The potential benefits of electronic health exchange are improved patient care, increased efficiency of the healthcare system and decreased costs. The reality is that health information is electronically exchanged only to a limited extent within local communities and regions, much less nationally and internationally. One main challenge has been the inability of health information exchange organizations to develop a solid business case. Other challenges have been socio-political in that data ownership and stewardship have not been clearly resolved. Technological improvements over the past 20 years have provided significant advances towards safe and secure information exchange. This chapter provides a general overview of community health information exchange in the United States of America, its history and details of challenges faced by stakeholders. The lessons learned from successes and failures, research and knowledge gaps and future prospects are also discussed. Current and future technologies to facilitate and invigorate health information exchange are highlighted. Two examples of successful regional health information exchanges in the US states of Utah and Indiana are highlighted.

scholarly journals State of the Art in Clinical Informatics: Evidence and Examples

2013 ◽  
Vol 22 (01) ◽  
pp. 13-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. B. McCoy ◽  
A. Wright ◽  
G. Eysenbach ◽  
B. A. Malin ◽  
E. S. Patterson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Information ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Health Informatics ◽  
Health Information Exchange ◽  
Clinical Decision ◽  
The United States ◽  
Clinical Informatics ◽  
Privacy And Security ◽  
Health Records

Summary Objective: The field of clinical informatics has expanded substantially in the six decades since its inception. Early research focused on simple demonstrations that health information technology (HIT) such as electronic health records (EHRs), computerized provider order entry (CPOE), and clinical decision support (CDS) systems were feasible and potentially beneficial in clinical practice. Methods: In this review, we present recent evidence on clinical informatics in the United States covering three themes: 1) clinical informatics systems and interventions for providers, including EHRs, CPOE, CDS, and health information exchange; 2) consumer health informatics systems, including personal health records and web-based and mobile HIT; and 3) methods and governance for clinical informatics, including EHR usability; data mining, text mining, natural language processing, privacy, and security. Results: Substantial progress has been made in demonstrating that various clinical informatics methodologies and applications improve the structure, process, and outcomes of various facets of the healthcare system. Conclusion: Over the coming years, much more will be expected from the field. As we move past the “early adopters” in Rogers' diffusion of innovations' curve through the “early majority” and into the “late majority,” there will be a crucial need for new research methodologies and clinical applications that have been rigorously demonstrated to work (i.e., to improve health outcomes) in multiple settings with different types of patients and clinicians.

hData - A Simple XML Framework for Health Data Exchange

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald Beuchelt ◽  
Harry Sleeper ◽  
Andrew Gregorowicz ◽  
Robert Dingwell
Keyword(s):  
Health Information ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Data Exchange ◽  
Health Information Exchange ◽  
Health Data ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Future Health ◽  
Data Interoperability ◽  
History Of ◽  
Electronic Health

Health data interoperability issues limit the expected benefits of Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems. Ideally, the medical history of a patient is recorded in a set of digital continuity of care documents which are securely available to the patient and their care providers on demand. The history of electronic health data standards includes multiple standards organizations, differing goals, and ongoing efforts to reconcile the various specifications. Existing standards define a format that is too complex for exchanging health data effectively. We propose hData, a simple XML-based framework to describe health information. hData addresses the complexities of the current HL7 Clinical Document Architecture (CDA). hData is an XML design that can be completely validated by modern XML editors and is explicitly designed for extensibility to address future health information exchange needs. hData applies established best practices for XML document architectures to the health domain, thereby facilitating interoperability, increasing software developer productivity, and thus reducing the cost for creating and maintaining EHR technologies.

scholarly journals What Affects Clinicians’ Usage of Health Information Exchange?

2011 ◽  
Vol 02 (03) ◽  
pp. 250-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Volk ◽  
S. Simon ◽  
D. Bates ◽  
R. Rudin
Keyword(s):  
Health Information ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Data Exchange ◽  
Health Information Exchange ◽  
Healthcare Providers ◽  
Care Quality ◽  
Time Savings ◽  
And Training ◽  
Exchange Health Information

SummaryBackground: The ability to electronically exchange health information among healthcare providers holds enormous promise to improve care coordination and reduce costs. Provider-to-provider data exchange is an explicit goal of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and may be essential for the long-term success of the Affordable Care Act of 2010. However, little is known about what factors affect clinicians’ usage of health information exchange (HIE) functionality.Objective: To identify factors that affect clinicians’ HIE usage - in terms of frequency of contributing data to and accessing data from aggregate patient records - and suggest policies for fostering its usage.Methods: We performed a qualitative study using grounded theory by interviewing clinician-users and HIE staff of one operational HIE which supported aggregate patient record functionality. Fifteen clinicians were interviewed for one hour each about what factors affect their HIE usage. Five HIE staff were asked about technology and training issues to provide context. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed. Recruitment excluded clinicians with little or no familiarity with the HIE and was restricted to one community and a small number of specialties.Results: Clinicians were motivated to access the HIE by perceived improvements in care quality and time savings, but their motivation was moderated by an extensive list of factors including gaps in data, workflow issues and usability issues. HIE access intensities varied widely by clinician. Data contribution intensities to the HIE also varied widely and were affected by billing concerns and time constraints.Conclusions: Clinicians, EHR and HIE product vendors and trainers should work toward integrating HIE into clinical workflows. Policies should create incentives for HIE organizations to assist clinicians in using HIE, develop measures of HIE contributions and accesses, and create incentives for clinicians to contribute data to HIEs.

scholarly journals Hospital adoption of multiple health information exchange approaches and information accessibility

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 577-583
Author(s):  
Jordan Everson ◽  
Evan Butler
Keyword(s):  
Health Information ◽  
Information Integration ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Health Information Exchange ◽  
The United States ◽  
Secure Messaging ◽  
American Hospital ◽  
American Hospital Association ◽  
Percentage Points

Abstract Objective Hospital engagement in electronic health information exchange (HIE) has increased over recent years. We aimed to 1) determine the change in adoption of 3 types of information exchange: secure messaging, provider portals, and use of an HIE; and 2) to assess if growth in each approach corresponded to increased ability to access and integrate patient information from outside providers. Methods Panel analysis of all nonfederal, acute care hospitals in the United States using hospital- and year-fixed effects. The sample consisted of 1917 hospitals that responded to the American Hospital Association Information Technology Supplement every year from 2014 to 2016. Results Adoption of each approach increased by 9–15 percentage points over the study period. The average number of HIE approaches used by each hospital increased from 1.0 to 1.4. Adoption of each approach was associated with increased likelihood that providers routinely had necessary outside information of 4.2–12.7 percentage points and 4.5–13.3 percentage points increase in information integration. Secure messaging was associated with the largest increase in both. Adoption of 1 approach increased the likelihood of having outside information by 10.3 percentage points, while adopting a second approach further increased the likelihood by 9.5 percentage points. Trends in number of approaches and integration were similar. Discussion/Conclusion No single HIE tool provided high levels of usable, integrated health information. Instead, hospitals benefited from adopting multiple tools. Policy initiatives that reduce the complexity of enabling high value HIE could result in broader adoption of HIE and use of information to inform care.

Regional and Community Health Information Exchange in the United States

2011 ◽  
pp. 1470-1490
Author(s):  
Adi V. Gundlapalli ◽  
Jonathan H. Reid ◽  
Jan Root ◽  
Wu Xu
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Patient Care ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Health Information Exchange ◽  
Business Case ◽  
The United States ◽  
Healthcare Systems ◽  
Secure Information

A fundamental premise of continuity in patient care and safety suggests timely sharing of health information among different providers at the point of care and after the visit. In most healthcare systems, this is achieved through exchange of written medical information, phone calls and conversations. In an ideal world, this exchange of health information between disparate providers, healthcare systems, laboratories, pharmacies and payers would be achieved electronically and seamlessly. The potential benefits of electronic health exchange are improved patient care, increased efficiency of the healthcare system and decreased costs. The reality is that health information is electronically exchanged only to a limited extent within local communities and regions, much less nationally and internationally. One main challenge has been the inability of health information exchange organizations to develop a solid business case. Other challenges have been socio-political in that data ownership and stewardship have not been clearly resolved. Technological improvements over the past 20 years have provided significant advances towards safe and secure information exchange. This chapter provides a general overview of community health information exchange in the United States of America, its history and details of challenges faced by stakeholders. The lessons learned from successes and failures, research and knowledge gaps and future prospects are also discussed. Current and future technologies to facilitate and invigorate health information exchange are highlighted. Two examples of successful regional health information exchanges in the US states of Utah and Indiana are highlighted.

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