Why is HIE important?

The goal of HIE is to facilitate access to and retrieval of clinical data to provide safer, more timely, efficient, effective, equitable, patient-centered care. HIE is also useful to public health authorities.

For example, an aging parent may experience a stroke or heart attack. His or her initial visit to a doctor or emergency room may result in admission to a hospital, followed by days, weeks, or months in multiple rehabilitation or skilled nursing facilities. During this time, various radiological scans or laboratory tests may be performed. One or more physicians may be prescribing pharmaceutical interventions. Nurses are observing the patient and noting progress or problems. HIE allows relevant information about the patient to be shared among care providers, as well as with the patient and family members caring for the patient.

HIE also supports public health by facilitating the transmission, collection, and analysis of information related to health trends, infectious disease outbreaks, and disaster response. In addition to improved patient care, HIE can also help reduce provider and insurer expenses associated with duplicate tests, time involved in recovering missing patient information, and the time and materials cost associated with the paper, ink and office machinery required to manually print, scan, and fax documents, the physical mailing of entire patient charts, and manual phone communication to verify delivery of traditional communications, referrals, and test results.