Dive Brief:
- Using a health information exchange may cut admissions through the emergency department and save money, according to a new study from the Weill Cornell Medical College published this week in Applied Clinical Informatics.
- The study found that emergency department physicians are less likely to admit patients when they have electronic access to those patients' healthcare records. (The records were drawn from the Rochester Regional Health Information Organization, which combines all recent and historical patient records from local providers.)
- In the study, the HIE system was used for 2.4% of ED encounters, and the odds of hospital admission were 30% lower when it was accessed. In this sample, annual savings amounted to $357,000.
Dive Insight:
HIEs are far from a cure for excess admissions, but clearly, when used widely they hold a lot of potential for flattening out the cost curve. You've got to wonder what the cost savings multiple would be if the HIE use was as much as 5% -- it could make a tremendous difference. (At the same time, I wonder why this effect isn't always observed in other studies.) It seems we are on the right track, even if we haven't put all the HIE pieces in place in US hospitals.