Health Information Exchange (HIE)

Health information exchange (HIE) is the transmission of healthcare-related data among facilities, health information organizations (HIO) and government agencies according to national standards. In practice the term HIE may also refer to the organization that facilitates the exchange.

HIE provides the capability to electronically move clinical information among different health care information systems. The goal of HIE is to facilitate access to and retrieval of clinical data to provide safer and more timely, efficient, effective, and equitable patient-centered care. HIE is also useful to public health authorities to assist in analyses of the health of the population.

HIE systems facilitate the efforts of physicians and clinicians to meet high standards of patient care through electronic participation in a patient’s continuity of care with multiple providers. Secondary health care provider benefits include reduced expenses associated with:

• the manual printing, scanning and faxing of documents, including paper and ink costs, as well as the maintenance of associated office machinery
• the physical mailing of patient charts and records, and phone communication to verify delivery of traditional communications, referrals, and test results
• the time and effort involved in recovering missing patient information, including any duplicate tests required to recover such information