Summary
Background and Objective: Healthcare professionals, industry and policy makers have identified Health Information
Exchange (HIE) as a solution to improve patient safety and overall quality of care.
The potential benefits of HIE on healthcare have fostered its implementation and adoption
in the United States. However,there is a dearth of publications that demonstrate HIE
effectiveness. The purpose of this review was to identify and describe evidence of
HIE impact on healthcare outcomes.
Methods: A database search was conducted. The inclusion criteria included original investigations
in English that focused on a HIE outcome evaluation. Two independent investigators
reviewed the articles. A qualitative coding approach was used to analyze the data.
Results: Out of 207 abstracts retrieved, five articles met the inclusion criteria. Of these,
3 were randomized controlled trials, 1 involved retrospective review of data, and
1 was a prospective study. We found that HIE benefits on healthcare outcomes are still
sparsely evaluated, and that among the measurements used to evaluate HIE healthcare
utilization is the most widely used.
Conclusions: Outcomes evaluation is required to give healthcare providers and policy-makers evidence
to incorporate in decision-making processes. This review showed a dearth of HIE outcomes
data in the published peer reviewed literature so more research in this area is needed.
Future HIE evaluations with different levels of interoperability should incorporate
a framework that allows a detailed examination of HIE outcomes that are likely to
positively affect care.
Keywords
Medical record linkage - health services - health utilization - review literature
- health information exchanges
