Health Information Exchange: Just What the Emergency Physician Ordered?

This Health Industry Perspective covers analyst views of health information exchange (HIE) initiatives in emergency departments (EDs). HIE is a broad term used to describe projects that entail sharing health information between stakeholders. Examples include medication history compiled of prescription claims data from pharmacy benefit managers and pharmacy network providers; results history compiled from national, regional, and hospital-based reference lab systems; and full-blown electronic health records that compile comprehensive health data from multiple third-party data sources. The ED has been targeted for HIE initiatives, including pilot projects of regional health information organizations (RHIOs), because of its historical lack of health information for ED patients and the urgent nature of this clinical care setting.