"HIE is defined as the electronic transfer of clinical and/or administrative
information across diverse and often competing health care organizations.
In practice, the term HIE is often used both as a verb  and a noun."

-- Health Information Exchange (2016), Edited by Brian E. Dixon, Page 5

As stated in the quote above an HIE, or Health Information Exchange, facilitates the electronic transfer of clinical and/or administrative information such as between electronic health records (EHR) and laboratory information systems (LIMS), or a pharmacy information system and an EHR.

Different forms of HIE1:

HIE TypeDefinition
PrivateAn interconnected affiliate-based health system, where exchange only
occurs within a membership group (e.g. hospitals, physician practices,
nursing homes, and some public health clinics operating as part of a
larger corporation or 'health system').
Community-basedExchange of data and information among providers that may be
marketplace competitors or otherwise unaffiliated (e.g. academic medical
center, large hospital system, group of federally qualified health
centers). Competitors recognize that they are better served through HIE
because of patient crossover, which can lead to repeating tests and
procedures for patients receiving uncompensated care.
Government-facilitatedState governments or other publicly funded organizations acting as
either a statewide HIO (Health Information Organization) or primary
facilitator of HIE within state boundaries. Unique in that they typically
operate at a technical level that supports a "network of networks".
Vendor-facilitated

A hybrid between Government-facilitated and Community-based HIE.
This form of HIE is facilitated by an EHR system vendor such as the Cerner
Corporation. Like the Government-facilitated form, the EHR vendor layers
a set of HIE services on top of its EHR infrastructure, enabling its customers
to send or receive information to other customers of that vendor's EHR
system. And like the Community-based form, the vendor services enable
exchange of information within hospitals and facilities outside a given
integrated delivery network. However, unlike the Community-based HIE,
the vendor does not typically facilitate the governance structure of the
exchange; it simply provides a technical pathway for HIE.  

1 Health Information Exchange (2016), Edited by Brian E. Dixon, Pages 6-8.


  • No labels

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.