An electronic health information exchange is the sharing of health-related information between patients, providers, nursing staff, pharmacists, and other healthcare organizations. The main goal of an electronic health information exchange (HIE) is for patients' personal health information to be available, accessible and shareable at any time and to follow it from doctor to doctor, increasing interoperability and decreasing costs and time. There are many benefits to an organization implementing a health information exchange; an HIE can decrease unnecessary services and reduce costs by making administrative tasks more efficient. It also allows patients to be more involved in their healthcare and encourages better quality of care. Health information exchange improves the quality of care in healthcare organizations. One area of concern when participating in health information exchange is technical problems that may occur in the system. Ensuring patient information is successfully transferred from one provider to another, including state agencies, is a challenge that health information organizations can address. “Although these organizations have demonstrated the ability to receive information, they have realized that the lack of consensus in terms of standards prevents them from disseminating the data effectively and economically.” (Milstine, 2011 p.761) This issue has the potential to be a problem for health information managers because HIM professionals must follow all laws and standards to protect patients' personal health information. ..... middle of paper ...... safe, and the privacy rule ensures it. Health information exchange does more than share patient data. Provides better opportunities to increase the quality of care; It saves money related to healthcare costs for hospital organizations in many ways and increases efficiency by minimizing all unnecessary paperwork. HIE is a great way for patients to stay connected to their primary care providers and is a much easier way for patients to stay involved in their healthcare. Patients have the opportunity to share their health information through exchange, which provides for improved public health and monitoring. Health information exchange is constantly developing and growing throughout the United States. According to the above studies and findings, health information exchange improves the quality of care in healthcare organizations.
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