Health Information Exchange: The Benefits

Electronic exchange of clinical information is vital to improving health care quality, safety, and patient outcomes. Health information exchange (HIE) can help your organization:

• Improve Health Care Quality: Improve health care quality and patient outcomes by reducing medication and medical errors
• Make Care More Efficient: Reduce unnecessary tests and services and improve the efficiency of care by ensuring everyone involved in a patient’s care has access to the same information
• Streamline Administrative Tasks: Reduce administrative costs by making many administrative tasks simpler and more efficient
• Engage Patients: Increase patient involvement in their own health care and reduce the amount of time patients spend filling out paperwork and briefing providers on their medical histories
• Support Community Health: Coordinate with and support public health officials to improve the health of your community

Electronic exchange of clinical information allows doctors, nurses, pharmacists, other health care providers, and patients to access and securely share a patient’s vital medical information electronically—improving the speed, quality, safety, coordination, and cost of patient care.

Achieving Meaningful Use

Electronic exchange of clinical information is one of the core objectives of meaningful use. One of the best ways to ensure you take full advantage of the benefits of health information exchange to improve health care quality, safety, and patient outcomes is to achieve meaningful use.

For More Information

For more information on the benefits of HIE and how HIE can improve health care quality, safety, and patient outcomes, see the following resources.

• Health Information Exchange: HIE Benefits
• What is health information exchange?
• Health Information Exchange: Getting Started with HIE
• Health Information Exchange Case Studies