How Record Location and Exchange is Revolutionizing Patient Care
More than ever, the healthcare system is poised to harness new technologies and data sources to improve population health. Health Information Exchange (HIE) is on the front lines of this movement, transforming how healthcare providers share data and deliver patient care.
For example, HIE through Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems fosters wide-ranging care collaboration and greatly improves patient outcomes.
However, a Record Locator & Exchange (RLE) service is necessary to help bridge interoperability gaps between various EHR platforms to achieve this smooth data exchange.
Join us as we cover the importance of HIE and how record location and exchange help healthcare providers access patients’ medical records, improving interoperability and compliance, streamlining practice management workflows, and revolutionizing patient care.
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What Is Health Information Exchange?
As a provider, you’re probably familiar with how traditional patient data has been shared (think faxes and paper reports) and stored (think filing cabinets and folders). Unfortunately, this information is exchanged in disparate ways, creating information silos across healthcare organizations.
Luckily, the exchange of health data has changed everything.
Health Information Exchange (HIE) refers to the electronic sharing of health-related information among organizations. The goal? To enhance care coordination, bridge communication gaps, and reduce medical errors by ensuring patient health data is available when and where it’s needed.
This information sharing can occur between healthcare providers, laboratories, pharmacies, and, most importantly, patients. In fact, patients appreciate greater access to and sharing of their records. A Pew survey reveals:
- Respondents (61%) said they wanted to access their medical records from providers’ EHRs on mobile apps or an online patient portal.
- Other participants stated they wanted access to specific data, including laboratory test results (89%), treatment plans (87%), and history of medical conditions (88%).
So, what does health data exchange cover? Basically, everything from lab results and medications to patient histories and referrals. When clinicians can access accurate, real-time health data, they’re better equipped to make informed decisions—thereby improving patient outcomes.
Overcoming Barriers to Effective Health Data Exchange
Despite its numerous benefits, implementing and fostering a strong digital health ecosystem comes with challenges. We list these limitations and their solutions below.
Compliant and Secure Data Exchange
One barrier to effective health data exchange is maintaining security. The World Economic Forum suggests it is crucial to ensure compliance, safety, and accountability are “hard-wired” into your EHR system.
Solution:
A compliant platform protects patient information and, more importantly, earns their trust and loyalty. To achieve security, make sure your EHR offers the following:
- Secure Data Encryption - strong encryption protocols protect data during transmission and storage.
- Audit Trails and Monitoring - conducting regular audits and recording every user action helps dodge potential security breaches.
- Compliance with Privacy Regulations - HIPAA-compliant data exchange ensures that sensitive information is encrypted and protected while still being accessible to authorized users.
Interoperability
One of the most pressing roadblocks to effective health data exchange is ensuring proper EHR interoperability standards across different systems. Without effective interoperability, significant problems can arise, including:
- Providers and staff cannot see historic patient health records for new patients, affecting care coordination and treatment protocols.
- Medical staff spend too much time on manual chart preparation at the beginning of appointments, which cuts care time.
- Patients do not feel like their provider knows them.
Solution:
To help bridge interoperability gaps between various EHRs, a Record Locator & Exchange (RLE) service, typically provided by a company like Surescripts (the nation’s largest clinical health information network), is needed to allow healthcare professionals to locate and access a patient’s medical records across different EHR systems.
RLE supports retrieving those records using HL7 FHIR standards. Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) is a standard developed by HL7 that efficiently exchanges healthcare data between different systems.
For example, DrChrono, a cloud-based EHR, partnered with Surescripts RLE to create RecordSync. This collaboration helps give healthcare providers, nurses, and staff a complete view of patient health records, enabling them to make well-informed decisions - at no extra cost.
RecordSync creates a shared application embedded within DrChrono that can interact with the Surescripts FHIR APIs to support both the Master Patient Index (MPI) and RLE.
The benefits include:
- Providers, nurses, and ancillary staff can see patients’ complete health records and history, saving time on appointment intake/chart preparation and allowing for holistic and accurate treatment based on the full 360 health picture.
- Having all EHRs connected translates into more informed and confident care decisions. A fuller view of patient data means more accurate diagnoses and tailored treatment plans.
- The ability to quickly retrieve comprehensive patient data means less time spent on administrative tasks and more on direct patient care.
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The Impact of Interoperable Health Data Exchange on Patient Care
Once effective EHR interoperability is established with RLE, providers can identify where a patient has received care and retrieve medical information from those locations.
However, the specific benefits to your patients are game-changing. We list the top four below.
- Improving Care Coordination
Health data exchange ensures that providers from different facilities, specialties, or areas are always on the same page. By sharing EHRs in real-time, physicians can collaborate more efficiently, reducing the risk of redundant tests or conflicting treatments.
In Action:
For example, an older patient with stage four kidney failure and other co-morbidities receives coordinated care from their primary care physician, cardiologist, and nephrologist. Effective EHR interoperability allows providers to collaborate by sharing information about medications, test results, and dialysis treatment plans.
This coordinated care approach helps manage complex cases effectively, saves time, prevents medication interactions, and ensures appropriate interventions for the patient’s overall well-being.
- Streamlining Clinical Workflows
Efficient and accurate health data exchange significantly improves clinical workflows by automating information collection and sharing processes.
Instead of manually requesting or physically transporting patient records between facilities, interoperable EHRs allow providers access to real-time health data with just a few clicks.
In Action:
For example, the DrChrono EHR is a fully integrated EMR, patient engagement, and billing in one platform. The system is a hub for clinical workflows, offering features that reduce data entry, such as automated text reminders and Billing Profiles.
- Text reminders send patients custom reminders before scheduled appointments, and patients can then confirm via phone or email.
- The Billing Profiles feature ensures that the correct codes are consistently applied by setting ICD-10, CPT, HCPCS, and NDC codes to the most common procedures.
- Reducing Errors and Missed Opportunities
When critical health information is easily accessible—such as allergies, current medications, and past diagnoses—the risk of medical errors decreases.
Accurate and consistent data sharing ensures providers are working with up-to-date information, reducing the likelihood of prescribing medications that could cause adverse reactions or conflicts.
In Action:
Imagine a patient arriving at an emergency room unconscious. Real-time health data exchange enables ER physicians to review the patient’s history immediately, avoiding potentially life-threatening errors.
For example, in the DrChrono EHR, electronic prescriptions (eRx) are automatically compared with the patient’s medication list to detect any drug-drug or drug-allergy interactions that may prove dangerous or fatal.
- Deepening Patient Satisfaction and Improving Outcomes
The ultimate goal of health data exchange is to improve patient outcomes and enhance their experience. Access to complete and accurate health records empowers providers to offer personalized, data-driven care plans, resulting in faster diagnoses, better treatment strategies, and improved recovery rates.
When patients see that their providers are well-informed and coordinated, it enhances their confidence in their care, improving the overall patient experience and loyalty.
In Action:
Robust, interoperable EHRs allow access to real-time information, reducing unnecessary tests and minimizing patient discomfort. For instance, an ER physician can quickly review a patient’s medical history, labs, allergies, and ongoing treatments, ensuring more accurate care delivery.
Another example of improving patient outcomes can be achieved by integrating EHRs with state immunization registries. This seamless integration ensures that healthcare providers have access to critical, up-to-date vaccination history, further supporting informed clinical decisions.
Time to Invest in Robust EHR Solutions
The health information exchange revolution is more than just a tech advancement; it’s a shift toward more patient-centered, efficient, and collaborative care. By enabling real-time interoperable healthcare data interaction through Record Locator & Exchange, providers can reduce medical errors, improve compliance, streamline workflows, and set new benchmarks in patient care.
If your organization is ready to embrace the future of patient-centric care, now is the time to invest in comprehensive, interoperable EHR solutions.
Connect with DrChrono to learn more about RecordSync and how we can help you revolutionize healthcare delivery, improve data management, and achieve better patient outcomes - together.