CHIME, eHI Release Guide to Assist CIOs with Effective Decision-Making Surrounding HIEs

ANN ARBOR, MI, November 15, 2011 – To help chief information officers of healthcare organizations make complex decisions involving how to achieve health information exchange with other providers, the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and the eHealth Initiative (eHI) today released, The HIE Guide for CIOs.

As healthcare organizations aim to demonstrate the meaningful use of electronic health records in Stage 1 of the HITECH program, one of the core objectives that a provider must meet in order to qualify for stimulus funding is to have the capability to “exchange clinical information electronically with other providers and patient-authorized entities.” Providers only have to test data exchange in Stage 1, but federal officials have indicated that Stages 2 and 3 will have many more requirements that will rely on achieving robust HIE.

The Web-based guide offers practical assistance for information technology executives pertaining to health information exchange. It includes chapters on:
• Assessing the local landscape for HIE
• Considerations in forming an Enterprise Health Information Organization
• Selecting an external Health Information Organization
• Technical requirements for HIE
• Assessing service offerings
• Ensuring privacy and confidentiality
• National HIE initiatives

“How health information exchange is achieved over the next few years is expected to change and evolve,” said Richard Correll, President and CEO of CHIME. “This guide is intended to be a starting point for identifying key issues for healthcare executives that are developing a ground-level understanding of how to accomplish health information exchange. As HIE grows and evolves in the coming months, this guide will be further refined to provide ongoing guidance on HIE decisions.”

“As we have tracked HIE initiatives over the past several years, we have learned that data exchange involves a lot of moving pieces,” said Jennifer Covich, executive director of Washington-based eHI. “Healthcare IT executives can use the HIE Guide for CIOs to help think through the process of getting involved in HIE.”

Content for the HIE Guide was developed by conducting research with CHIME’s CIO members who have had practical experience with health information exchange, as well as drawing upon the resources of eHI, particularly its HIE Toolkit, which provides in-depth information related to the development of health information organizations.

“The HIE Guide focuses on actionable information that healthcare IT executives need to know in order to make wise decisions to ensure successful health information exchange for their organization,” said George Hickman, vice president and CIO at Albany (N.Y.) Medical Center, one of the lead reviewers of the publication. “These decisions must match an organization’s strategy, and health IT executives need a resource like this to walk them through the important factors they need to consider in order to make good HIE decisions.”

The HIE Guide for CIOs is available for free at www.cio-chime.org/hieguide

About CHIME
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 1,400 CIO members and over 70 healthcare IT vendors and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and healthcare in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit www.cio-chime.org.

About the eHealth Initiative
For more than a decade, eHealth Initiative (eHI) has represented the multiple and diverse stakeholders who are improving healthcare through the use of health information technology (HIT). eHealth Initiative's mission is to drive improvement in the quality, safety and efficiency of healthcare through information and technology. eHealth Initiative is the only national organization that represents all of the stakeholders in the healthcare industry and has a coalition of more than 200 of the most prestigious and influential organizations amongst its members. For eight years, eHI has surveyed and tracked the progress of state, regional and local initiatives, and is recognized as the pre-eminent authority on health information exchange.

Contact:
Stephanie Fraser
Communications Coordinator
734-665-0000
sfraser@cio-chime.org

Updated: 11/15/2011 12:48:52 PM