The surge in health information exchange between care providers and health related institutes and organizations have lead to the emergence of Health Information Exchanges (HIE) across the country. Common opinion suggests that the multitude of HIEs will lead to better care quality where as recent research has questioned if this is the right way to standardize information exchange in the healthcare industry.
Experts have now questioned the capability of Health Information Exchanges and whether they can be fully operational as intended and at the same time be fully compliant with Meaningful Use as per requirements of the HITECH Act. The experts instead suggest the development of a cloud-based Health Record Bank as a better alternative.
A health record bank is essentially an “electronic consumer-controlled warehouse that gathers, stores and disseminates patients’ health records. A patient can, for a fee, establish an account with a health record bank. When the patient has new medical information – such as information relating to an upcoming physician’s appointment - their provider can send it directly to the bank. The patient can also submit their own information as well as determine who can have access to review their personal medical records”, according to the HRSA website.
Believing that the current health information systems are not properly structured and faulty, researchers believe that this lead them to think of better ways in which they can huge amounts of data across the industry, involving all key stakeholders.
Researchers believe that the fundamental issue with Health Information Exchanges is that they are based on assumption. The assumption is that one can receive information about any patient from any provider, anywhere. It is believed to be ineffective because when you go to a provider for some information about a certain patient, the provider will have to contact the other provider who actually has that information, and hence specifically ask for that information, which the other provider will have to look for, then disseminate that information back to the provider you first went to.
Information sharing would become so much easier if all information related to patients across the country was stored in a single database, accessible by all certified and registered care practices and healthcare organizations. The current issue faced y experts in the industry is that significant amount of money has already been spent on the development of HIEs across the country.
Research suggests that Health Information Exchanges might sound great as a concept, but when you actually look at the process through which it works – it makes you wonder if this is the best way to go forward.
Experts have now questioned the capability of Health Information Exchanges and whether they can be fully operational as intended and at the same time be fully compliant with Meaningful Use as per requirements of the HITECH Act. The experts instead suggest the development of a cloud-based Health Record Bank as a better alternative.
A health record bank is essentially an “electronic consumer-controlled warehouse that gathers, stores and disseminates patients’ health records. A patient can, for a fee, establish an account with a health record bank. When the patient has new medical information – such as information relating to an upcoming physician’s appointment - their provider can send it directly to the bank. The patient can also submit their own information as well as determine who can have access to review their personal medical records”, according to the HRSA website.
Believing that the current health information systems are not properly structured and faulty, researchers believe that this lead them to think of better ways in which they can huge amounts of data across the industry, involving all key stakeholders.
Researchers believe that the fundamental issue with Health Information Exchanges is that they are based on assumption. The assumption is that one can receive information about any patient from any provider, anywhere. It is believed to be ineffective because when you go to a provider for some information about a certain patient, the provider will have to contact the other provider who actually has that information, and hence specifically ask for that information, which the other provider will have to look for, then disseminate that information back to the provider you first went to.
Information sharing would become so much easier if all information related to patients across the country was stored in a single database, accessible by all certified and registered care practices and healthcare organizations. The current issue faced y experts in the industry is that significant amount of money has already been spent on the development of HIEs across the country.
Research suggests that Health Information Exchanges might sound great as a concept, but when you actually look at the process through which it works – it makes you wonder if this is the best way to go forward.