BUSI 505 State Health Information Exchange Discussion Board

The State Health Information Exchange (HIE) Cooperative Agreement is meant to ensure that its grantees are capable of monitoring and ensuring statewide implementation. In addition, it ensures that adoption and the transactions of exchange mechanisms that they have implemented directly or have supported through the use of funding, technical assistance, or marketplaces, among other means are utilized in order to support the use of health information technology. In order for the health care industry to continuously provide high quality care, it is paramount that a proper way to exchange health information is in place. “Central to this model are HIE organizations that facilitate the exchange of health information and are trusted parties” (Shanholtzer & Ozanich, 2016, p. 220). The agreement also allows for the continued development and subsequent implementation of new policies, interoperability requirements, and business practices that allow for electronic health information to be exchanged more easily. It also helps to reduce implementation costs and ensures that the data being exchanged is totally secure and remains private. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) played a large part in creating a national network that allows health care organizations and consumers to share information with one another. This network helps to ensure that all the information spread through it is secure. It also allows for a better way of exchanging information, meaning higher quality care becomes attainable. HIE also helps to reduce the risk of harm for patients. “HIE protects patients from harm” (Bailey et al., 2013, p. 181). It is in this way that HIE attempts to improve the state of health care information exchange across the country.

Tennessee has made great use of HIE. They were awarded well over $11 million and made good use of it. Upon the surge of emphasis placed upon health care technology in 2010, Tennessee’s new president of the Tennessee Medical Association, B. W. Ruffner, Jr., MD, made an effort to promote e-Health technology (Williams, 2020, p. 30). This served as a great way of utilizing HIE throughout the state, helping to make sure that the highest quality of care was constantly being attained and that electronic health records were made readily available throughout the state. There was some concern at the time about doctors properly adjusting to the newly implemented changes, but over time it seems this ended up not being too big of an issue to overcome. As more and more physicians were on board with the new way of doing things, the easier it became to further implement HIE across the entirety of Tennessee. Dr. Ruffner was determined to make sure the Tennessee Medical Association was committed to the development of HIE and whole-heartedly believed the state to be in a good position to potentially lead the rest of the country in the use of e-Health technology, so long as doctors were included in all steps of the process.

When confronted with changes, it is easy to feel out of place and unsure about the way things are going. This is why the Bible tells us, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15, English Standard Version). This means that we should be confident in what we are doing so long as it falls in line with God’s will. This is applicable to the doctors in Tennessee who were unsure about the implementation of HIE within the state. They should have a confidence and an understanding that this new way of doing their job is still the right thing to do even though it feels a bit different. In this way, doctors and all other types of people can continue to glorify God whenever changes come about.

References

Bailey, J. E., Wan, J. Y., Mabry, L. M., Landy, S. H., Pope, R. A., Waters, T. M., & Frisse, M. E.

(2013). Does health information exchange reduce unnecessary neuroimaging and

improve quality of headache care in the emergency department?Journal of general

internal medicine, 28(2), 176–183. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-012-2092-7

Shanholtzer, M.B. & Ozanich, G. (2016). Health Information Management and Technology (1st

ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Williams, B. (2010). Are you ready to exchange e-health information? Tennessee Medicine,

103(5), 29-32