The Results of HIE Consulting
Health information exchange is the idea of having different healthcare organizations sharing their clinical data. HIEs are normally categorized according to the way they are governed. There are those that are managed by nonprofit organizations while others are controlled by a governmental agency. With an ever increasing population in the United States, there is need to have a standardized channel of sharing information within the healthcare system.
Use of HIEs allows for improved safety in treatment techniques, decreases time for analysis, minimizes medical mistakes and improves the proficiency and productivity of the healthcare system. In most cases of emergency where patients are unable to express themselves, diagnosis can be wrongly done, thereby leading to a incorrectly initiated treatment process. The impact is felt most among the aging population as well as those suffering from chronic illnesses such asthma, cardiovascular problems, diabetes among others. This shows how important it is to have experts who can share medical information to healthcare providers on behalf the chronically ill and elderly people, in a more timely and well-organized manner.
Improvements in the management of HIEs has helped to do away with duplicate tests as well as minimize the number of times a patient can be readmitted to the hospital. It has been found out that healthcare providers save a significant amount of time in treating a patient whose data is in the HIE records. Consequently, there is enhanced patient satisfaction too.
Nonetheless, it is vital to realize that HIE consulting can be improved by a great extent when standardization is done. What HIE interoperability calls for is that organizations providing these services to adhere to the required standards so that the process of exchanging data can be more effective. The process would otherwise be rendered tiresome if this is not done. A good example of standardization in HIE consulting is the use of a specific language for communication among people from diverse ethnic backgrounds. When people from different communities use a common language for communication, they are able to communicate in more effective way. It is worth to note that standardization helps to improve the process of exchanging medical information. It assists in improving the level of understanding among the different institutions that are involved in the healthcare system.
The department of Health and Human services is currently the one that provides supervisory duties with regards to healthcare concerns of the citizens in the United States, although there are other players for HIE consulting that operate within the private sector. The department is divided into ten regions that span across the entire United States of America. However, the process of implementing and enhancing HIE services to all citizens in the United States has not been uniformly realized.