What are the Critical Success Factors for a Health Information Exchange?

In our increasingly mobile society few patients see one doctor and one doctor only. They visit primary care providers, specialists, emergency rooms and urgent care clinics. All of these visits generate important healthcare information which would improve overall patient care if shared from provider to provider. More data at each encounter means a better picture of the patient for which the provider can make better decisions at the point of care, the moment the provider is with the patient. Health information exchanges (HIEs) facilitate this with quicker and easier data sharing for multiple providers throughout a region. Providers that subscribe to these networks often have access to their patients' medication and problem lists and lab and radiology reports at a minimum. Well-connected healthcare providers can also access clinical encounters, discharge summaries, and more depending on the extent of the network of data available in the HIE. Sharing data via a health information exchange is a safe and secure way for healthcare providers to upload and access this data electronically. Such health information portals benefit everyone involved from the patient to the healthcare provider to the insurance company.