Dear Healthcare IT Insider,
Regional health information organizations (RHIO) are starting to sound like a good idea, both clinically and fiscally. Providing access to patient information to a region's healthcare providers should allow for better quality of care. By the same token, the ability to view a patient's medical record across disparate medical entities should prevent unnecessary or duplicative testing.
A study presented at the 2006 RSNA conference in Chicago last month proved that RHIOs can provide clinical and fiscal benefit to their users, specifically when it comes to diagnostic imaging.
Dr. Elliot Menschik, president and CEO of Philadelphia-based healthcare services and information technology provider Hx Technologies, delivered results of a study undertaken at the Philadelphia Health Information Exchange that quantified the extent to which patients seek imaging care across a region's competing medical facilities.
The group examined two (Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and the University of Pennsylvania Health System) of its 13 entities and found that a surprising number of patients were traveling between the facilities for their imaging exams. They also determined that relevant priors for these patients were unknown to the staff at the other institution.
To learn more about how sharing images across institutional borders could yield significant potential savings, click here. As a Healthcare IT Insider subscriber, you have access to this story before it's published for the rest of our AuntMinnie.com members at the end of the week.
Finally, if you have a comment or story to share about any aspects of healthcare IT, please get in touch with me at [email protected]. I look forward to hearing from you.
