Fetzer,+Greg

=My WikiHealth=

The Importance of your Personal Health Information and a Health Information Exchange
As we move forward in adopting new federal healthcare mandates put forth by the Obama Administration, individuals are going to be forced to take more responsibility for their health and healthcare. Currently our state is in the infancy of creating a Health Information Exchange. While some people may view this as a privacy issue, it can save lives and provide better quality healthcare. A personal example and one that hits close to home is when my 84 year old mother was admitted to an emergency room on New Years Eve, 2012. Diagnosis: Pneumonia. The right call was to start a Levaquin IV Drip - a potent antibiotic. But because no health information on my mother's background was available, they didn't know she was allergic to Levaquin. Result: Anaphylactic shock. Her body never recovered and she passed away on February 3rd. My point is that dragging our feet on creating a Health Information Exchange is unacceptable. We have the technology and the costs are minimal compared to implementing an Electronic Health Record software. Ask yourself this question. If my primary care physician is in Little Rock and I am in an accident in Fayetteville, wouldn't you want those healthcare providers to know your basic healthcare information by having access to a simple, personal healthcare sheet, i.e. drug allergies, etc.?

What is Health Information Exchange?
The term "health information exchange" (HIE) actually encompasses two related concepts:
 * **//Verb://** The electronic sharing of health-related information among organizations
 * **//Noun://** An organization that provides services to enable the electronic sharing of health-related information

Why Health Information Exchange Is Important
The ability to exchange health information electronically is the foundation of efforts to improve health care quality and safety. HIE can provide:
 * The **connecting point** for an organized, standardized process of data exchange across statewide, regional, and local initiatives
 * The means to **reduce duplication of services** (resulting in lower health care costs)
 * The means to **reduce operational costs** by automating many administrative tasks
 * **Governance and management** of the data exchange process

Health Information Exchange Benefits: A Few Examples

 * Provides a vehicle for improving quality and safety of patient care
 * Provides a basic level of interoperability among EHRs maintained by individual physicians and organizations
 * Stimulates consumer education and patients' involvement in their own health care
 * Helps public health officials meet their commitment to the community
 * Creates a potential loop for feedback between health-related research and actual practice
 * Facilitates efficient deployment of emerging technology and health care services
 * Provides the backbone of technical infrastructure for leverage by national and State-level initiatives

[|Doctors and Local HIE]

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