{"id":166487,"date":"2026-02-11T12:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T17:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/healthit.gov\/data\/?post_type=quick-stat&p=166487"},"modified":"2026-02-11T12:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T17:18:11","slug":"methods-used-hospitals-engage-interoperable-exchange","status":"publish","type":"quick-stat","link":"https:\/\/healthit.gov\/data\/quickstats\/methods-used-hospitals-engage-interoperable-exchange\/","title":{"rendered":"Methods Used by Hospitals to Engage in Interoperable Exchange"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The American Hospital Association Information Technology Supplement tracks methods hospitals use to engage in interoperable exchange with other organizations across the healthcare delivery system. Since 2018, the proportion of hospitals that often use four prominent network-based methods of sending and receiving information has consistently increased, while the proportion of hospitals that often use mail or fax has fluctuated, trending downward between some years and stabilizing between others<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Percent of hospitals that often or sometimes send or receive summary of care records with sources outside their hospital system by method, 2018, 2021, 2023 and 2025.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Table: Percent of hospitals that often or sometimes send summary of care records to outside sources, 2018-2025<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Send<\/th><\/tr>
Methods Used<\/th>Frequency<\/th>2018<\/th>2021<\/th>2023<\/th>2025<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Mail or fax<\/th>Often<\/th>40%<\/td>35%<\/td>30%<\/td>40%<\/td><\/tr>
Sometimes<\/th>31%<\/td>34%<\/td>37%<\/td>34%<\/td><\/tr>
HISPs that enable messaging via Direct protocol<\/th>Often<\/th>42%<\/td>51%<\/td>58%<\/td>53%<\/td><\/tr>
Sometimes<\/th>19%<\/td>18%<\/td>16%<\/td>22%<\/td><\/tr>
State, regional, or local HIE<\/th>Often<\/th>36%<\/td>50%<\/td>53%<\/td>60%<\/td><\/tr>
Sometimes<\/th>23%<\/td>15%<\/td>19%<\/td>18%<\/td><\/tr>
EHR vendor-based network<\/th>Often<\/th>30%<\/td>38%<\/td>48%<\/td>55%<\/td><\/tr>
Sometimes<\/th>13%<\/td>6%<\/td>7%<\/td>7%<\/td><\/tr>
National networks that enable exchange across different EHR vendors (e.g. Carequality)<\/th>Often<\/th>20%<\/td>34%<\/td>48%<\/td>60%<\/td><\/tr>
Sometimes<\/th>14%<\/td>13%<\/td>19%<\/td>16%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>
Source: Response to 2018, 2020 (fielded 2021),\u00a02023, and 2025\u00a0American Hospital Association Information Technology Survey. 2,351\u00a0hospitals responded in 2025.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Table: Percent of hospitals that often or sometimes receive summary of care records from outside sources, 2018-2025<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Receive<\/th><\/tr>
Methods Used<\/th>Frequency<\/th>2018<\/th>2021<\/th>2023<\/th>2025<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Mail or fax<\/th>Often<\/th>47%<\/td>42%<\/td>35%<\/td>35%<\/td><\/tr>
Sometimes<\/th>29%<\/td>35%<\/td>40%<\/td>46%<\/td><\/tr>
HISPs that enable messaging via Direct protocol<\/th>Often<\/th>29%<\/td>39%<\/td>44%<\/td>38%<\/td><\/tr>
Sometimes<\/th>20%<\/td>19%<\/td>22%<\/td>23%<\/td><\/tr>
State, regional, or local HIE<\/th>Often<\/th>21%<\/td>35%<\/td>41%<\/td>53%<\/td><\/tr>
Sometimes<\/th>25%<\/td>21%<\/td>23%<\/td>20%<\/td><\/tr>
EHR vendor-based network<\/th>Often<\/th>26%<\/td>35%<\/td>43%<\/td>59%<\/td><\/tr>
Sometimes<\/th>15%<\/td>8%<\/td>15%<\/td>8%<\/td><\/tr>
National networks that enable exchange across different EHR vendors (e.g. Carequality)<\/th>Often<\/th>18%<\/td>28%<\/td>46%<\/td>54%<\/td><\/tr>
Sometimes<\/th>14%<\/td>17%<\/td>16%<\/td>19%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>
Source: Response to 2018, 2020 (fielded 2021),\u00a02023, and 2025\u00a0American Hospital Association Information Technology Survey. 2,351\u00a0hospitals responded in 2025.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The American Hospital Association Information Technology Supplement tracks methods hospitals use to engage in interoperable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":619,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_selected_menu":"","_show_breadcrumbs":"true","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"topics":[126,65],"class_list":["post-166487","quick-stat","type-quick-stat","status-publish","hentry","topics-data","topics-interoperability"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMethods Used by Hospitals to Engage in Interoperable Exchange - ONC Health IT Research & Analysis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Health IT Research and Analysis provides access to datasets, analysis, and reporting that monitor health information technology trends and Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT programs and policies.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/healthit.gov\/data\/quickstats\/methods-used-hospitals-engage-interoperable-exchange\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Methods Used by Hospitals to Engage in Interoperable Exchange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Health IT Research and Analysis provides access to datasets, analysis, and reporting that monitor health information technology trends and Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT programs and policies.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/healthit.gov\/data\/quickstats\/methods-used-hospitals-engage-interoperable-exchange\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ONC Health IT Research & Analysis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-11T17:18:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/healthit.gov\/data\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/ONC.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/healthit.gov\/data\/quickstats\/methods-used-hospitals-engage-interoperable-exchange\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/healthit.gov\/data\/quickstats\/methods-used-hospitals-engage-interoperable-exchange\/\",\"name\":\"Methods Used by Hospitals to Engage in Interoperable Exchange - 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