Studies Show....
Numerous studies have shown that HIEs provide cost-savings, improved care and care coordination, improved efficiency and reliability, and improved safety and quality— all leading to better overall population health.
Specific benefits to providers reported are reduced duplicate procedures, reduced imaging, lower costs to operate, and improved patient safety and satisfaction.
HIEs Save Money
A study at the University of Notre Dame found that nationwide HIE could save Medicare more than 3 Billion per year. ($139 per Medicare beneficiary per year)
Manual delivery of lab results costs $.75 on average, while electronic delivery only costs $.12 per message
A study through the University of Connecticut showed that that the adoption of health information exchanges improved healthcare quality while also lowering costs by minimizing repetition of services.
A Missouri-based HIE reported an estimated savings of 12.8 million annually to its network participants.
A study at the Medical University of South Carolina shows that HIE adoption and access both improved emergency care and saved participating healthcare organizations close to $1 million inpatient charges.
A study on emergency departments in Tennessee proved savings of 1.9 million annually and improved quality of care for over 86.7 of patients.
A study from the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association showed a 57% reduction of readmissions through the use of HIEs resulting in a $605,000 savings.
A report from KHIN presented that, for a typical three-physician practice, they would add an additional $30,000 in revenue annually from the time saved by fast HIE access.
A study from the Journal of the American College of Radiology found that HIE use was associated with an overall estimated annual savings of $32,460 in avoided repeat imaging, or $2.57 per patient.
HIEs Improve Care and Care Coordination
A provider survey and subsequent study out of Ohio reported that HIE fostered more efficient care (93%), saved time (85%), decreased laboratory (84%) and imaging (74%) use, and 15% stated that HIE prevented an unnecessary admission.
Research from Health Affairs found that hospitals that participated in HIEs had a greater decline in readmission rate than hospitals who didn’t participate in an HIE.
Research by AHDB showed that HIE availability in the care of patients presenting emergency departments is associated with fewer inpatient hospital days and a shorter length of stay.
A study from Fox School of Business also found that HIE use decreases future readmissions and the number of future encounters.
A study at the Medical University of South Carolina shows that HIE adoption and access both improved emergency care and saved participating healthcare organizations close to $1 million in patient charges.
A Brookings study showed that the use of HIE resulted in a 52% reduction in radiology exams and a 36% reduction in laboratory testing.
A study from the University of Texas at Dallas recently linked HIE use in hospitals to a 14.8% reduction in patient length of stay.
The use of HIE in a group of NY hospitals found:
A 50% reduction in the rate of hospital readmissions
A 26% reduction in the rate of emergency department admissions
A 35% reduction in the rate of repeat imaging procedures
A 10% lower 30-day readmission rate among Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries
HIEs Increase Medication Accuracy
The American Journal of Managed Care reported that adding HIE info to EHR data raises medication accuracy to 91%
“One provider or hospital participating singularly in an HIE does not create much ROI value, however, when all of the healthcare providers in a community participate in an HIE, the ROI is noticeably impacted. Therefore, as HIEs evolve, it is important that participants view themselves as valued contributors to a crucial infrastructure that provides and improves health data that will help build healthier communities in the near future.”
–Return on Investment for Health Information Exchange Participation by Laura McCrary, Ed.D,
