Health Information Exchange
At Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI), we want to give you the best care. That’s why we participate in various Health Information Exchanges (HIE) independently operated by local communities, states, and other entities. Participating in an HIE allows your information from various independent caregivers to be readily available when your caregiver needs it.
We participate in two types of HIEs, national and regional/statewide.
Frequently Asked Questions
An HIE gives your health care team your medical history information on their computers with just a few clicks.
To provide you with the safest, most effective and efficient care possible, authorized clinicians and care teams need a complete picture of your medical history—especially in emergencies, when every second counts. Sharing your information through an HIE allows clinicians and others who support your care to securely share vital medical information electronically. Instead of relying on the slow delivery of fax messages, phone calls and postal service, your caregiver can access critical information in the moment it is needed.
CHI is also part of national HIEs like eHealth Exchange, Commonwell and Carequality who operate secure data networks (see more below). These HIEs allow Catholic Health Initiatives to gather some of your medical history from other health care providers you have visited who are also participating in such HIEs. In the same way, other health care providers can get access to your Catholic Health Initiatives medical information if you need medical care away from home or if you are referred to a new doctor. Doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, laboratories, skilled nursing facilities and other health care providers can retrieve your medical information securely through HIEs when necessary, as permitted by law.
If you received care at a CHI facility and then receive care from another caregiver or organization, the other caregiver/organization may be permitted to access your CHI medical information through such HIEs to support and coordinate your care.
When traveling or when transitioning your care to other caregivers, an HIE allows the relevant information in your Catholic Health Initiatives electronic health record (EHR) to travel with you, supporting care continuity.
Examples of when clinicians might share your medical history through an HIE:
- Your primary caregiver can send a healthcare summary to a specialist. Emergency room care teams may be able to learn about your allergies and see the medical tests you have recently had.
- If you have a stroke or a broken hip, your entire care team—from the emergency room to a rehab facility—can see your important medical information.
This HIE is a nationwide secure data sharing network for sharing clinical information securely over the Internet. Participants in this HIE include large provider networks, hospitals, pharmacies, regional health information exchanges and many federal agencies, representing 40% of all U.S. hospitals, tens of thousands of medical groups, more than 8,000 pharmacies and 100 million patients.
This HIE is a nationwide secure data sharing network for sharing clinical information securely over the Internet. CommonWell core services aim to enable caregivers to manage patient identity, link patients across organizations, and facilitate secure data access and exchange beyond one’s own system or community. These services are essential to the exchange of health data along the care continuum. Contributor members are committed to ensuring provider access to the data is built into their technology.
CommonWell members have deployed CommonWell services in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., and thousands of provider sites are utilizing these services daily. Members are EMR vendors, not health systems – allowing access to any participating group running their system.
This HIE is a nationwide secure data sharing network for sharing clinical information securely over the Internet. Carequality is an interoperability framework to link numerous data sharing networks, which expands the reach of regional HIEs. These existing health data networks are expanding to include additional providers, payers, government agencies, and others as the Carequality community grows.
Opting-Out” means you decide that your information will not be available in an HIE for your caregivers to see. If you choose to Opt-Out of eHealthExchange, Commonwell, or Carequality, your healthcare team may not have all of the needed information to help provide you the safest and most effective healthcare. Opting-Out of these networks will result in your data not being available to other healthcare organizations when they request it from Catholic Health Initiatives’s system. For eHealthExchange, Commonwell, and Carequality, when you opt-out, your information is not available even in an emergency. To opt out of the national networks contact your primary caregiver.
Opting out of the national HIEs listed above will not remove you from the regional or statewide HIEs. For some HIEs, when you opt-out, your information is not available, even in an emergency. To opt in or out of a regional or statewide HIE please visit: HIE_Master_list_for_posting.pdf (URL) for instructions or contact your primary provider.