Participation in an inter-organization health information exchange is associated with reduced instances of duplicated imaging tests in the emergency department, according to a study in Medical Care.
Researchers analyzed ED discharge data from the State Emergency Department Databases for California and Florida for 2007-2010, along with information from HIMSS on which hospitals and health systems participated in HIEs during that time. Using a subset of 37 EDs with HIE participation and 410 EDs without, researchers tracked how many patients were given the same imaging test (computed tomography, ultrasound or chest X-ray) more than once within 30 days at unaffiliated EDs.
Results showed HIE participation to be associated with 44 to 67 percent reductions in repeated imaging tests relative to sample means. This study is among the first to provide evidence for this anticipated benefit of HIE participation.
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