HealtHIE Nevada, in collaboration with the Nevada Healthcare market, is implementing a community based Health Information Exchange (HIE) to help Nevada providers improve the timeliness, quality, and coordination of care for their patients.
The community HIE will enable physicians to instantly, automatically, and securely receive and share real-time patient information at the point of care. The data will come directly from their electronic medical records (EMRs), without the use of specialized hardware in their practice. This includes referrals, laboratory results, radiology reports, submitting prescriptions, and renewals.
Founding Members
- Catholic Healthcare West
- Healthcare Partners
- Nevada Orthopedic and Spine Center
- Renown Health
- Southwest Medical Associates, Inc.
- Sunrise Health System
- The Valley Health System
- University Medical Center of Southern Nevada
What is Health Information Exchange (HIE)?
A Health Information Exchange (HIE) is the bidirectional exchange of structured data between multiple healthcare systems. The exchange happens electronically across organizations within a region, community or hospital system to improve the quality, value, and efficiency of patient-centered care.
HIEs enable physicians and clinicians to access all of the patient’s relevant data at the point of care regardless of where the patient has been seen or where the physician is located. HIEs take many forms, including data interchange between individual healthcare providers, hospital systems, pharmacy chains, payers, Personal Health Record (PHR) brokers and retail stores that maintain healthcare clinics.
Typical Participants in Community-based HIEs
At its core, HIEs include the providers along the continuum of care who join as stand-alone institutions or as a network. In addition, public health and other state agencies will connect. HealtHIE Nevada envisions our role in HIE to be the interchange of data between the acute care facility, the local provider community, Regional Health Information Organizations (RHIOs) with which the facility might be affiliated, and eventually, the National Health Information Network (NHIN).
Governance and Sustainability of a Community-based HIE
Typically, a community or regional HIE is governed by a multi-stakeholder body representing the participants in the HIE and, in some cases, other leading community organizations. While start-up funding may be through a grant or contribution, the stakeholders achieve sustainability through fees to participating organizations. Fees are determined based on the principles of benefits received and a common understanding of what is fair and reasonable. HealtHIE Nevada is currently working with stakeholders to establish its governance model and fee structure.
Typical Services of an HIE
- Secure clinical messaging – The capability to move real time data among users across organizations. This can include lab and radiology results and provider cross-referrals.
- Inquiry - Allows an authorized clinician to look up clinical and administrative data from multiple sources through the HIE. This “snapshot” of patient data is often called the Continuity of Care Document (CCD), or a virtual health record. It is an essential and life-saving tool used by Emergency Departments (EDs) as well as others.
- Web-based EMR - Provide physicians with simple, Web-based EMRs to facilitate the movement of physicians from paper to electronic tools. This enables the entire provider community to take full advantage of the HIE.
- Public health connectivity — Use of clinical messaging function and direct data feeds to communicate with public health.