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March 25, 2013 12:00 AM

CHIME Time: I'll take youth—and health information exchange—any day of the week

Charles Christian
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    Christian

    Healthcare organizations have a lot to learn from health information exchanges.

    In Indiana, for instance, participating healthcare organizations leveraged the Indiana HIE to assist them with routine tasks like delivering results and reports, providing reportable lab values to the state Department of Health, sharing syndromic surveillance data and more. They also utilized the services to provide very timely clinical data in the emergency room setting, as well as access to a patient's prescription information, made available from RxHub.

    Working with a variety of state agencies, such as Indiana's Department of Health and its Medicaid program, healthcare organizations were beginning to look to the HIEs in the state for additional services that would improve their daily operations and assist in the event of a disaster. The structure of the HIEs' technology enabled them to remain open to creative (and secure) use of data and information.

    Unfortunately, not every state has been fortunate enough to establish robust health information exchange that can cover a state in its entirety. And there are those who would argue that a statewide HIE is not necessary, contending that regional HIEs that match the referral markets are all that's needed. In my humble opinion, both have their place, and much depends on the region and/or referral market. However, when I worked in rural Southwest Indiana, a regional HIE would have covered 150 miles in all directions; this was the distance that many of our patients had to travel for specialized and higher risk services. In that case, a connection to a statewide HIE was the best approach. In an urban setting, this is probably not the case.

    After 23 years in Southwest Indiana, I accepted an opportunity to work in Columbus, Ga. The Georgia Health Information Exchange (GHIE), like HIE projects in many states, is working to provide a low-cost, scalable and interoperable infrastructure that will enable any healthcare provider in Georgia to achieve meaningful-use objectives. GHIE is currently delivering their first solution, GeorgiaDirect, which provides authorized providers the ability to securely transmit patient data to other authorized clinicians.

    I will be the first to admit that I am just getting up to speed on the HIE activities in Georgia. Hopefully, in a few months, I can share more of what I've learned. I'm reaching out to a variety of CIO friends who have been working in Georgia over the years and to the Georgia agencies in an effort to educate myself on the Georgia HIE infrastructure, and current and future plans. I've also learned that there were some preliminary conversations within the Columbus area about setting up a regional HIE to cover this referral area before my arrival. I've reached out to the other hospital system in Columbus and to Fort Benning about the possibility of us moving those conversations forward.

    I'm hoping that my experience in Indiana will be of value in Georgia, but I need to keep reminding myself that my Indiana experience is just one experience and not the only way to address the tasks of health information exchange. Although I've had the privilege of learning from the early pioneers, I still have lots to learn in the realm of HIEs and how they can be leveraged, both on a regional and statewide level.

    For now, I really miss my Indiana experience and the efficiency it provided. I'm not sad or mad about things; I'm determined to shine a light on the many benefits that HIE can bring to providers who really commit to it and begin to think creatively about how data sharing can benefit healthcare delivery.

    At the end of the day, it's about getting the appropriate clinical data to the clinician at the time that they need it, as part of the provision of care. That's what can make healthcare efficient, and what can help IT deliver on the promise of easily moving data on an as-needed basis, so clinicians can make time-sensitive, well-informed decisions on care. That's the higher standard envisioned for providers, and data HIE needs to make it happen.

    Charles Christian

    Vice president and chief information officerSt. Francis HospitalColumbus, Ga.
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