Assignment: Health Information Exchanges Note: Please see the Attachment for additional information for this assignment. This assignment will result in two bulleted lists and a memo for patients. All

Week 7a-Written Assignment, Rubric, & Lesson Content

Assignment: Health Information Exchanges

This assignment will result in two bulleted lists and a memo for patients. All can be placed into one Word Document for submission. In this assignment, imagine yourself in the role of a recently hired HIM Manager for LiveWell Hospital. You are the direct supervisor over Release of Information, Chart Completion and Clinical Documentation Improvement. You previously worked as an HIM coordinator and were on the front line when they adopted and deployed a Health Information Exchange (HIE), and this gave you a hiring advantage at LiveWell.

SCENE ONE: Ms. Clark, the HIM Director asks to see you in her office to review a possible project for you. LiveWell wants to adopt and roll-out an HIE with several facilities in the northern part of your state. She prefers that the Information Systems department oversee and manage the HIE project and indicates that she doesn't believe that HIM professionals have the competency needed for an HIE roll-out. Your previous experience with HIE was very rewarding and successful – you interrupt Ms. Clark in your excitement and plead with her to let you oversee HIE at LiveWell. You explain that your previous experience convinced you that HIE belongs in the HIM department. Ms. Clark asks you to research and report back on the following two issues regarding HIE:

1. Create a bulleted list that outlines HIM COMPETENCY to effectively manage an HIE roll-out.

2. Prepare a 2nd bulleted list and ADVOCATE for HIE – she wants to better understand the benefits for the patient, the healthcare facility and the northern region of your state.

You leave Ms. Clark's office and locate the following AHIMA article, HIE Management and Operational Considerations (Updated)

Or

https://content.learntoday.info/Learn/HI300_Fall_13_Update/site/Media/Journal%20of%20AHIMA%20Article.pdf

and use it to respond to the above issues presented by Ms. Clark above.

SCENE TWO: The following month, Ms. Clark notifies you that based on your input and experience, the HIM department will oversee the roll-out of an HIE. She congratulates you and then indicates that she is concerned on how patients will accept an HIE – she feels that an HIE will scare patients and make them feel that their PHI (protected health information) is at risk. She asks you to:

1. Create a one page memo to use with patients and their families which will explain

   1. How we participate in a regional medical records-sharing HIE.

   2. Why we participate in a regional medical records-sharing HIE

   3. Indicate how a patient's information may be used and disclosed for the HIE.

   4. Include specific benefits to the patient of our clinic sharing their private health information with other health care providers.

   5. Include information on the privacy and security protections that are pertinent.

   6. The memo must be easy to read, well organized and proofed. This is a professional communication tool that will be seen by all of LiveWell's patients.

Be sure to responsibly use citations for research sources and make sure your submission is free of spelling and grammar errors. Your completed submission will include:

• two bulleted lists (#1 and #2 above)

• a memo for patients (#3 above)- APA reference with In-text citation’s

Submit your completed assignment by following the directions linked below. Please check the Course Calendar for specific due dates.

Save your assignment as a Microsoft Word document.

Rubric

Module 07 Written Assignment - Health Information Exchanges

Lesson Content

One of our topics this week is HIEs or Health Information Exchanges.  Here are two links, one to a HIMSS website as well as another website dedicated to HIEs that will be helpful to you to browse for supplemental information.

http://www.himss.org/library/health-information-exchange?navItemNumber=16135

https://www.healthit.gov/HIE

The whole purpose of HIEs, regardless of the structure, is to make it easier for patient information to be shared among providers for better patient care.  HIEs have been challenging to implement over the years since the concept was introduced for many reasons, and the concept continues to evolve as technology advances and as patient and provider cultures, attitudes, and expectations change.  Their use also varies widely from region to region, from urban to rural, and in different areas of the country.

If you want to see more information on a real HIE, the Indiana Health Information Exchange Network is one of the largest HIEs in the country.  Review their webpage at www.ihie.org.

Virtualization Technologies

Modern desktop and server computers contain a terrific amount of computing power and storage space. Because of this, and some very clever things that have been done with the architecture of computer processors, virtualization has become a hot topic in IT and a very common practice in data centers.

Virtualization software permits a single computer to divide its resources up so that more than one instance of a computing environment may be run on that computer's hardware simultaneously. Although a single monitor and keyboard may be attached to the machine, from the perspective of the network it may look like a dozen or more computers are running simultaneously.

To make virtualization possible, a piece of software called a "hypervisor" is installed on the host computer. This hypervisor enables the user to build virtual machines whose processor and memory components are shared by the host and whose hard disk is actually just a file residing on the real disk of the host.

There are several virtualization projects on the market, including VMware VSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, and Sun VirtualBox. Each works a little differently, and each offers unique features.

In organizations of every size virtualization technology can deliver valuable benefits, most notably by saving money on hardware (and associated cooling and power expenses.) Additionally, virtualization can be used to build inexpensive test environments, as well as easy-to-deploy disaster recovery replacements.

Content Module on health information exchanges (HIE) and interoperability

According to AHIMA, a health information exchange (HIE) is the "process of reliable and interoperable electronic health-related information sharing conducted in a manner that protects the confidentiality, privacy, and security of the information." (AHIMA, 2013)

Furthermore, health information exchanges can be facilitated by Health Information Organizations (HIOs) to "…enable interoperability, security and confidentiality, and to ensure authorization of those who access the information." (AHIMA, 2013)

Now, think about what this means in practice. Let us consider patient Gary. Gary was kicked by a bull as he was completing his daily rounds of farm work. He went to the local hospital emergency department after abdominal pains increased at night. Fortunately for Gary, his usual primary care physician was sharing medical records data with the HIE. The rural emergency department immediately accessed his primary care record observing he is not only diabetic, but also takes the drug Coumadin, an anticoagulant. Decision was made to airlift him to the regional medical center where his special needs could be better treated. The rural hospital was able to share its admissions assessment almost instantaneously with the regional medical center as Gary was on his way to treatment there. The regional medical center was a member of the same HIE. This was all made possible because of health care data interoperability and hard work establishing an HIE; not simply because the clinic and hospitals happened use an EHR.

For this all to work together, the patient’s privacy and security concerns must also be addressed. The technical issues surrounding interoperability are substantial and can be costly to resolve as well.

States have an absolutely critical role in regulating and facilitating HIE. Many state requirements are more stringent than those of the federal government rules (HIPAA) on privacy and security of patient information. The effective implementation of HIEs will be a process of working with state governments, private organizations and health care providers, and federal government entities such as the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC). The ONC launched the State Health Information Exchange Cooperative Agreement Program to work with states to advance the promotion and interoperability needed for HIEs to succeed. (AHIMA (2011). HIE Management and Operational Considerations. Journal of AHIMA 82, no. 5: 56-61, May 2011.)