A health information exchange (HIE) is a cooperative effort, usually regional, to securely consolidate patient information from multiple sources. These sources could include EMR and EHR data, diagnostic images or videos and anything else that is relevant to the care of a patient. By making this data available through HIE, with the permission of the patient, participating healthcare providers would have access to the complete patient record to support patient safety and continuity of care. In an emergency, healthcare providers would have immediate access to important information, such as allergies or pre-existing conditions.
Leading vendors support the interoperability standards that make HIEs possible. However, storage and security measures should also be addressed. Because of the amount of data included in a long-term patient record and the size of medical images, an HIE can have massive medical data storage and backup requirements. Services providers specializing in healthcare can help you balance broad access for physicians and other caregivers with HIPAA compliance and a responsibility to prevent medical identity theft.