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Today there are more than 80 non- profit and government-sponsored HIEs whose participants exchange more than 4 billion clinical messages annually. This network of state and regional HIEs has become a critical part of a national health data infrastructure. When COVID-19 arrived, HIEs were ready. Across the country, HIEs connect not only hospitals, labs and clinicians but also first responders, correctional facilities, state and local government, post-acute care facilities and the community-based organizations (CBOs) that serve communities across the country. In each community, HIEs are the neutral, unbiased data trustee that provides critical patient record and health data services. Many of these HIEs are the state-designated “health data utility” for their state or region, providing these essential services: 877.MY.SHIEC [email protected] @SHIEClive strategichie.com © 2020 SHIEC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED AMERICA’S HIEs AND THE RESPONSE TO COVID-19 AMERICA’S HIEs: COUNT ON US The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the work of America’s health information exchanges (HIEs) in aggregating and securely sharing patient information, from tracking the progress of COVID-19 to the treatment of patients where access to more longitudinal patient health records is an essential tool for clinicians. DATA AGGREGATION HIEs are connected to labs and hospitals and receive electronic data feeds on critical patient data such as test results and care episodes such as ADTs (hospital admissions, discharges, and transfers). ALERTS AND NOTIFICATIONS In each state or region, HIE participants can “subscribe” to alerts on their patients so that they can receive real-time notifications on tests results or ADTs. PATIENT OR DATA PORTAL HIEs aggregate patient data across disparate hospitals, health systems and labs and make this data available for providers to view or download for new patient visits or more complete longitudinal patient histories. POPULATION HEALTH AND DATA ANALYSIS As the state or regional data aggregator, HIEs are also able to analyze data to study the health of populations or the progress of disease. This data analysis provides valuable information for providers and communities to help improve health outcomes. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND REPORTING HIEs aggregate and analyze critical patient and community health data, and this allows HIEs to provide reports to health departments and others on syndromic surveillance and patient data.

AMERICA’S HIEs AND THE RESPONSE TO COVID-19...The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the work of America’s health information exchanges (HIEs) in aggregating and securely sharing

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Page 1: AMERICA’S HIEs AND THE RESPONSE TO COVID-19...The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the work of America’s health information exchanges (HIEs) in aggregating and securely sharing

Today there are more than 80 non-

profit and government-sponsored

HIEs whose participants exchange

more than 4 billion clinical messages

annually. This network of state and

regional HIEs has become a critical part

of a national health data infrastructure.

When COVID-19 arrived, HIEs were

ready. Across the country, HIEs connect

not only hospitals, labs and clinicians

but also first responders, correctional

facilities, state and local government,

post-acute care facilities and the

community-based organizations

(CBOs) that serve communities across

the country. In each community, HIEs

are the neutral, unbiased data trustee

that provides critical patient record

and health data services. Many of these

HIEs are the state-designated “health

data utility” for their state or region,

providing these essential services:

877.MY.SHIEC [email protected] @SHIEClive strategichie.com© 2020 SHIEC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

AMERICA’S HIEs AND THE RESPONSE TO COVID-19

AMERICA’S HIEs:COU NT ON US

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the work of America’s health information exchanges (HIEs) in aggregating and securely sharing patient information, from tracking the progress of COVID-19 to the treatment of patients where

access to more longitudinal patient health records is an essential tool for clinicians.

DATA AGGREGATIONHIEs are connected to labs and hospitals and receive electronic data feeds on critical patient data such as test results and care episodes such as ADTs (hospital admissions, discharges, and transfers).

ALERTS AND NOTIFICATIONSIn each state or region, HIE participants can “subscribe” to alerts on their patients so that they can receive real-time notifications on tests results or ADTs.

PATIENT OR DATA PORTALHIEs aggregate patient data across disparate hospitals, health systems and labs and make this data available for providers to view or download for new patient visits or more complete longitudinal patient histories.

POPULATION HEALTH AND DATA ANALYSISAs the state or regional data aggregator, HIEs are also able to analyze data to study the health of populations or the progress of disease. This data analysis provides valuable information for providers and communities to help improve health outcomes.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND REPORTINGHIEs aggregate and analyze critical patient and community health data, and this allows HIEs to provide reports to health departments and others on syndromic surveillance and patient data.

Page 2: AMERICA’S HIEs AND THE RESPONSE TO COVID-19...The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the work of America’s health information exchanges (HIEs) in aggregating and securely sharing

877.MY.SHIEC [email protected] @SHIEClive strategichie.com© 2020 SHIEC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

092020

HEALTH INFORMATION EXCHANGES AND COVID-19

AMERICA’S HIEs:COU NT ON US

HIEs and COVID-19America’s HIEs were able to respond swiftly to the COVID-19 pandemic because they already had a national network or infrastructure in place. More importantly, HIEs and their state and local public health partners are demonstrating innovative use cases for using the existing health data infrastructure to address COVID-19:

Data aggregation – HIEs were already connected to hospitals and labs, and this allowed HIEs such as Healthix in New York to receive results from a temporary COVID-19 hospital or from new mobile testing sites as the Maryland HIE, CRISP and others did to meet the demand for increased testing. It also allowed HIEs like KeyHIE, a Pennsylvania HIE, or Nebraska’s HIE, NeHII, and to track hospital bed availability and essential personal protective equipment (PPE) that helped health care communities to respond.

Alerts and notifications – HIEs were geared up already for real-time, electronic reporting on test results, so moving from thousands of tests to tens of thousands of tests was not difficult. New York hospitals, for example, relied heavily on real-time test results from HIEs when COVID-19 first spiked there. In other communities such as Oklahoma, first responders quickly realized that they could get quicker results from their HIE, MyHealth Access, than they could from public health departments. Many HIEs such as CRISP in Maryland expanded their alerting to include text messaging to patients testing positive to encourage self-isolation.

Patient or data portal – Early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, clinicians began to realize that a patient’s history and co-morbidities had an enormous influence on the course of the disease and treatment. New York HIEs were an invaluable data source for clinicians treating COVID-19 patients, and with the Nebraska HIE, NeHII, the HIE already administered the state prescription drug program, so access to medication history was and continues to be

valuable. Across the country, access to more complete patient information through one centralized portal has proven to be a huge benefit.

Population health and data analysis – COVID-19 has flooded the health care system with data, but HIEs from Manifest MedEx in California to CRISP in Maryland to Healthix in New York City, have provided health departments and state government valuable insights into the pandemic, identifying geographic areas and patient types that are more seriously affected by COVID-19. Much of the COVID-19 data and analysis is high-lighting vulnerable populations and patients, and HIEs like Health Current in Arizona are using this data to improve outreach and service to Medicaid providers and beneficiaries.

Community engagement and reporting – HIEs across the country have worked with health departments and state government to provide reports and dashboards tracking the progress of COVID-19 and its treatment. In Nebraska, for example, the NeHII dashboard provides not only real-time reporting on COVID-19 test results, but also current information on bed capacity, PPE, forecasting and even trending by health districts in the state. This reporting has fostered greater collaboration among health departments, state government and HIEs. In Arizona, for example a representative from the state health department sit on the Health Current Board, and collaboration among health department professionals, state Medicaid and the HIE are commonplace. One very positive outcome of COVID-19 is a much stronger and growing bond between the state or regional HIE and the public health and Medicaid communities.

Building a Better Health Data InfrastructureThe response of America’s HIEs to the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the value of HIEs to communities and the nation and helped to chart a path to a better national health data infrastructure:

The HITECH investment in America’s HIEs has paid off.

As discussed above, America’s HIEs already had the services and functions in place to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Through community support and participation along with valuable federal funding, HIEs have become a critical part of the national health data infrastructure. Every day, HIEs better inform care coordination and improve clinical outcomes.

There is a clear need for better national health data infrastructure.

HIEs have played and are playing an integral role in providing data and analysis to better inform a COVID-19 response from state health departments to state Medicaid agencies to the CDC. COVID-19 has demonstrated the need for a better, more coordinated national health data system, and HIEs deliver more complete data to clinicians and government, improving outcomes and even saving lives.

There is value for communities and the nation in extended HITECH funding.

A better national health data infrastructure does not require new programs or investment. Instead, building on the investment already made to America’s HIEs will pay dividends for a COVID-19 response today and for our future.