Accelerating the Adoption of Healthcare Information Exchanges through Progressive Integration

Despite many perceived benefits from accessing and exchanging patient information across healthcare providers (HCPs), the adoption of healthcare information exchanges (HIEs) has been slow. Numerous efforts related to the implementation of HIEs are typically focused on consolidation of data within a region or a network, and have resulted in a growing number of HIEs implemented at different levels that required further integration with other HIEs. Several organizational, technical and economic challenges affect the speed of adoption of HIEs and subsequent implementation. This paper proposes an approach based on the salient characteristics of care provision environment and of integration requirements – to address typical challenges through an interconnected network of exchanges aimed at supporting different types of healthcare providers and HIEs offering a generic set of services, and a migration path for healthcare providers and HIEs through four different levels. Keyword: Healthcare information exchanges, Challenges, Integration approaches INTRODUCTION In recent years healthcare organizations have been undertaking initiatives for adopting new systems and processes to improve quality, safety and efficiency (Ciriello and Kulatilaka, 2010). Implementation of Electronic Health Records (EHR) constitutes a significant part of such initiatives. EHRs include different types of longitudinal health information such as demographic, progress notes, problem lists, medication lists, information about allergies, diagnostic test reports, immunizations, and discharge summaries. A typical HIE supports secure access to patient information (part of EHR) across healthcare organizations, and offers benefits in terms of improved quality and savings in healthcare cost. For example, Patel et al (2011) find that physicians perceive HIEs potential in improving various aspects of healthcare as they can electronically view ISS & MLB―September 24-26, 2013