Survey: Hospitals Have High Hopes for Information Exchanges

A survey of more than 340 hospitals finds almost 80 percent have or plan to join a health information exchange.


A survey of more than 340 hospitals finds almost 80 percent have or plan to join a health information exchange.

Thirty-two percent of respondent hospitals already are part of an HIE while 47 percent plan to join such an initiative. The primary driver toward HIE is meeting electronic health records meaningful use criteria, cited by 48 percent of respondents. Other reasons include connecting to the community (21 percent), connecting to impatient/ambulatory environments (15 percent), connecting to the state (12 percent) and driving toward accountable care organizations (2 percent).

CapSite, a Burlington, Vt.-based research and advisory firm, conducted the survey. Other results include:

* Seventy-four percent of hospital respondents plan to invest in HIE technology, most within the next 7 to 24 months;

* The most common connectivity applications purchased during the past two years are results reporting/delivery, secure messaging, bi-directional orders management, and referrals;

* The value-added services most frequently invested in during the past two years include e-prescribing, immunization reporting, physician portal, patient portal and image viewing; and

* The five vendors being considered the most by respondents for HIE technology are Medicity, Cerner, Epic, RelayHealth and eClinicalWorks.

The report, "2011 U.S. Health Information Exchange Study," is available to providers for free at capsite.com. The cost to non-providers is $3,500.

 

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