Electronic health-information exchanges sprout

CNY Business Journal (1996+), Aug 17, 2007 by Acton, Ryann

SYRACUSE - Electronic health-information exchanges (HIE) can reduce medical costs and duplicative services while improving care. One of the major initiatives of the Health Advancement Collaborative of Central New York (HACCNY) is implementing an electronic medical-information highway linking Central New York physicians, pharmacists, hospitals, and insurers.

The Syracuse-based not-for-profit is awaiting approval for a $3.2 million Health Care Efficiency and Affordability Law for New Yorkers (HEAL-NY) grant to help fund an electronic HIE in Central New York. If HACCNY does not receive HEAL-NY funding, the organization will look for other funding sources, says Nancy Smith, HACCNY's executive director. Implementing an electronic HIE in Central New York is not a matter of if, it is a matter of when, Smith says.

"[HIEs] are intended to take a fragmented health-care system and connect it in a way that is coordinated," Smith explains.

The electronic exchange provides critical information when patients cannot remember or forget to mention certain tests, Xrays, inoculations, or treatments they have received.

"It's just so easy to do another," Smith says of tests and Xrays.

Electronic HlEs reduce duplicative services and cut down on health-care costs.

They can also improve care. Physicians can enter a patient's prescription on the exchange, which then compares it to other medications the patient takes and shows generic equivalents, Smith explains. It has the potential to increase generic usage and prevent any possible drug interactions without physicians and pharmacists having to call one another, she adds.

Forming an electronic HIE does come with its own set of patient-privacy concerns.

"There are some legitimate privacy issues," Smith notes.

Disclosing sensitive information such as underage pregnancies, HIV status, and mental-health disorders are a concern, she explains. HACCNY is researching HIE privacy issues while the not-for-profit awaits approval of its HEALNY funding.

Other regional health-care organizations are already dealing with privacy concerns as state funding for their HIEs have already come through.

Southern Tier

The Southern Tier Health Link (STHL), a coalition of hospitals and practice groups in the Southern Tier, received a $3.5 million HEAL-NY grant to help fund the region's HIE. STHL's exchange project will cost $22 million over the next three years, says Christina Galanis, STHL's project director.

The Binghamton based coalition's HIE is in development. In September, STHL will begin to integrate digital-radiology imaging and by the end of the fourth quarter of this year will begin to integrate clinical data, Galanis explains.

"It's moving out at a nice clip," she says.

STHL's HIE will be role-based, meaning only doctors that have a right to access patient information will be allowed, to ensure patient privacy, Galanis says. This prevents physicians from accessing the system to browse a patient that is not theirs, she adds.

Eventually, patients will be able to log into the system to access their information. They will be able to manage their information - restricting or requesting access to certain physicians. Patients will also be able to see who has accessed their information.

Information such as HIV status, sexually transmitted diseases, abortions, mental status, and drug and alcohol abuse will not be included in STHL's HIE.

Implementing an electronic HIE does force patients to think about allowing some of their most sensitive information, their health history, to be accessed electronically. But Galanis contends it is worth the cost savings, reduction of duplicative services, and increase in patient safety.

"It's a brave, new world. Patients will eventually be glad we're doing this," Galanis says.