CHIME, eHI Issue HIE Guide

To help CIOs make complex decisions involving how to achieve HIE with other providers, CHIME and the eHealth Initiative have released, “The HIE Guide for CIOs.”

The Web-based guide offers chapters on:

• Assessing the local landscape for HIE
• Considerations in forming an Enterprise Health Information Organization
• Selecting an external Health Information Organization
• Technical requirements for HIE
• Assessing service offerings
• Ensuring privacy and confidentiality
• National HIE initiatives

“The HIE Guide focuses on actionable information that healthcare IT executives need to know in order to make wise decisions to ensure successful health information exchange for their organization,” said George Hickman, vice president and CIO at Albany (N.Y.) Medical Center, one of the lead reviewers of the publication. “These decisions must match an organization’s strategy, and health IT executives need a resource like this to walk them through the important factors they need to consider in order to make good HIE decisions.”

As part of Meaningful Use, providers only have to test data exchange in Stage 1, but federal officials have indicated that Stages 2 and 3 will have many more requirements that will rely on achieving robust HIE.