Classification Systems Health Information Exchange

The College of St. Scholastica

Department of Health Informatics and Information Management

Health Information Exchange Project

Focus on CONSENT for Use and Exchange of Health Information

(25 Points)

I. Objectives -The purpose of this case study is to:

• Provide critical thinking and problem solving skills related to interoperability.
• Demonstrate proficiency in data extraction and display.
• Improve knowledge and understanding of regulatory implications related to exchange of PHI.
• Demonstrate an understanding of project management skills.
• Apply analytical skills in creating policy.

II. Organizational Description:

The Health Information Exchange Organization (HIEO) was launched several years ago with the goal of helping lowering the state’s staggering healthcare expenses and improve the state’s consistent poor rankings in leading health indicators, including obesity, smoking, diabetes and heart disease. Improving healthcare through enhanced use of information technology and data exchange is the heart of what we do. We manage one of the country’s largest and most successful health information exchange (HIE) networks, provide advisory services that help healthcare professionals effectively use technology and improve care delivery, and supply health plans and accountable care organizations (ACOs) with valuable data that enhance analytics and population health programs. We’ve been in existence for several years and now have the majority of the state’s hospital providers and have many physician, reference lab, diagnostic radiology centers, mental health providers and other providers participating in our exchange.All participating organizations send electronic health information to the exchange including hospital transcribed documents (H&Ps, Discharge Summaries, Operative Reports, etc.), lab results, diagnostic radiology results and other clinical documentation.

As an independent, nonprofit organization, we are dedicated to serving all of the state’s healthcare stakeholders including physicians, hospitals, behavioral health, emergency medical services, public health, long-term care, laboratories, imaging centers, health plans, communities and patients. We are self-sustaining and our funding comes from a fee-based subscription model. We were previously the recipient of three grants focused on building capacity for statewide health information exchange, including two grants from the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA) HITECH program.

 

 

Our Mission is: Through information exchange we improve health and healthcare.

Our Vision is: Patients will be measurably healthier as organizations and individuals that contribute to health and healthcare effectively utilize information provided by the HIEO to continuously improve patient care and population health.

• Type of organization: State Health Information Exchange
• Number of patients served, number of admissions etc.:Over 4.5M patients are represented in our exchange database, representing over 75% of the state’s population.
• Staff:The executive team is comprised of our CEO, CIO and CFO.We also have marketing and sales staff, administrative and finance staff and technology staff who support our exchange database and create and manage HL7 interfaces between our database and each participating organization’s system. In the past year, with the launch of our Information Governance (IG) program, we have added a Chief Data Officer (CDO) and five Data Integrity Specialists to our team.