Why is a Health Information Exchange important?
Health care providers benefit from the timely receipt of results in a predictable manner, a reduction in missing results and reports, improvements in efficiency and patient service and enhanced ability to collaborate with colleagues. Hospitals, laboratories, and radiology centers benefit from a streamlined method for transmitting results and reports to physicians, better access to patient information and medication history and strengthened relationships with referring physicians. For health plans and employers, the timely delivery of results and reports and the availability of historical clinical information will reduce duplicate tests and repeat office visits. The widespread availability of electronic prescribing systems will reduce the burden of growing prescription drug costs. Our local public health system will be able to automate surveillance functions, enabling more rapid detection of public health threats and providing a system to quickly alert the healthcare community to newly detected outbreaks. *Health information exchanges improve patient safety by helping providers identify adverse drug reactions, allergies or other complications. Providers can send reminders about scheduled tests, review all test results and establish better profiles of each patient’s medical history. Medical errors can be reduced while the quality of health care is improved.
The community will benefit from improvements in the quality, safety, efficiency and cost of healthcare.
*Health Information Privacy and Security Tool Kit Michigan Health Information Network www.mihin.org. Made possible by the Health Information Security and Privacy Collaboration (HISPC) a contract managed by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC).
How does the health information exchange (HIE) work?
When a patient goes into an emergency room, hospital or physician practice at a participating organization an authorized clinician can use the HIE to see pertinent medical information and activity. Specifically, the HIE provides the following medical information:
- Prescription drug history
- Lab test results and reports
- X-rays, MRIs and other imaging reports
- EKG reports and images
- Diagnoses
- Basic medical information
A Board of Directors that consists of local leaders from major institutions guides the decisions about policies and procedures. Please visit the Board Members and Staff page.
As a health care provider, how can I participate?
To become a member please contact the Great Lakes Health Information Exchange by phone or email.
Phone: 517-347-3373
Fax: 517-347-3387
Email: info@glhie.org
What if we do not already have an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) System?
The HIE will be able to offer you an inexpensive, web-based system that will do many of the functions of an EMR although it will not provide billing or scheduling functionality. Elysium’s EMR Lite passed all certification criteria for Comprehensive Meaningful Use on May 30, 2011.
What if we already have an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) System?
If you are already using an EMR and/or Electronic Health Record (EHR), the HIE can develop an interface to connect with your EMR to ensure the receipt of patient results and reports and clinical messaging with other physicians. In addition, authorized users will be able to view a patient’s community-wide, longitudinal health record.
Who are the founding organizations?
Please visit the Board Members page.
Will my individual health records be private and secure?
Please visit the Privacy and Security Page.