ROI To the HIE (Or: 'How Many Acronyms Can HIM Create?')
As someone who recently went through the hassle of filling out paper forms at a new physician's office only to be reprimanded for failing to send my medical records ahead of the appointment, I can understand why health information exchange (HIE) is a hot topic. And despite murmurs of doomed regional health information organizations (RHIO), this morning's presentation by Margaret Ezell, PhD, and Ty Humpert from Universata explained just how a hospital's current release of information (ROI) policies--note to self: send ROI form to previous provider--can be used as a spring board to establish HIE.
Dr. Ezell urged AHIMA members to "get involved and go help your community" to develop an HIE/RHIO program. According to Dr. Ezell, the switch from paper to electronic releases, which is an essential step toward HIE, can save facilities as much as $20,000 on mailings and $5,000. When the "time factor" is taken into account, such as improvements in productivity and turnaround time, savings can reach an estimated $50,000 to $75,000, Ezell said.
But before establishing HIE, facilities must invest time and effort to ensure a smooth transition and robust end result. Dr. Ezell offered the following tips for HIM professionals looking to lead the way toward HIE:
1) Learn the buzz words. HIE involves a number of terms, such as HIO and RHIO. "You are going to need to know them to sit at the table with the C suite," Dr. Ezell said. HIM leaders should know the key elements of HIE and the differences between facility-based and regional governing bodies before heading to the CEO, chief financial officer or chief information officer.
2) Get to the table. Engage the C suite in a conversation about HIE and make your presence known. Find ways to ensure that your HIM department will be part of the effort, Dr. Ezell advised. "You gotta have your staff involved," she later reiterated.
3) Clean up your data. Go through the master patient index and remove duplicate records. According to Dr. Ezell, clean-up at one facility identified 20,000 duplicate records. Take the time now to get organized so you don't pay for it later.
4) Start now. HIE won't be achieved overnight, but "you can notch away at it," Humpert said. He suggested identifying the facility's top 20 ROI requestors and working with those organizations and providers when transitioning to electronic requests, while Dr. Ezell said any action that helps the move toward electronic records--whether you're just starting to scan, have a hybrid record or are fully electronic--is progress.
Dr. Ezell and Humpert admitted that establishing HIE is a large undertaking, but they noted several facilities that have achieved success. The Medical University of South Carolina, which responds to over 200 requests from Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) every month, generated a spreadsheet file that allows requests to be viewed in the BCBS account on the facility's HIE. The Lakeland Regional Medical Center in Florida built an exchange that enables medical records of "snowbirds" to be transferred from the Florida facility to other providers in northern states.
The session offered plenty to think about and much to hope for, but something tells me my physician's small paper-based office isn't planning to link up an HIE anytime soon. Alas, the knowledge I've gained at this convention is proving to be a double-edged sword.