Our nation’s clinicians lack access to critical information at the point of care that could help them improve patient safety, increase efficiency and reduce costs.  Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) offer the potential to bridge this information gap by enabling the secure exchange of patient data among industry stakeholders. 

Two new papers published by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, a part of Deloitte LLP, examine challenges and best practices among existing HIE models and make the case that states are in an excellent position to champion the implementation and adoption of HIEs nationwide.

HIE Business Models: The Path to Sustainable Financial Success explores the organizational and operational challenges facing today’s HIEs as they seek to identify and implement a sustainable business model. The paper also shares characteristics of a successful HIE model and provides suggested strategies for long-term success.

States’ Role in Health Information Exchanges: A Collaborative Approach Across Multiple Stakeholders examines the various roles that states can play in HIE development, adoption, and maintenance. The paper shows how states can be at the epicenter of HIE evolution and the ways in which they can coordinate multiple stakeholder interactions and influence HIE adoption. This paper also identifies key factors that are critical to the success of a state-based HIE initiative, as well as the resulting benefits.

HIEs offer tremendous potential to improve health care quality, reduce medical errors and lower costs by paving the way to increased interoperability and information-sharing among patients, providers and payors. They also are the building blocks for a proposed National Health Information Network (NHIN) that, when complete, will enable universal access to electronic health records across jurisdictions and hospital systems to benefit all stakeholders.

To learn more about the challenges and benefits of implementing HIEs, download the two attached PDFs below.