Many HIEs are still missing a key piece of information — identifications of the facilities where a patient has received care.
The ONC has mandated a common clinical data set for exchanged data with a number of points, and although the data set includes information like a list of care team members and laboratory tests and procedures, it does not mandate a list of sites where care has been administered. This can lead to holdups in physicians determining the services the patient likely received, which are relevant for reimbursement, regulatory and research purposes, said Brian Dixon, PhD, an assistant professor at the Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health in Indianapolis, in a news release.
Dr. Dixon worked with the Regenstrief Institute to identify the problem. Regenstrief, an Indianapolis-based healthcare research organization, electronically transmitted 8,000 medical records from multiple care systems to the Social Security Administration from 2011 to 2013 to shorten and improve the disability care determination process. However, the SSA had difficulty identifying former facilities in determining disability qualifications, according to the news release.
Dr. Dixon surveyed other HIEs and found that facility standardization is missing from most exchanges. He has proposed a "rough draft" system to store and manage information about facilities in all levels of the healthcare system to solve the issue, which he will discuss in session at the HIMSS15 Annual Conference & Exhibition from April 12 – 16 in Chicago.