A Primer for Evaluating Health Information Exchange in Long-Term and Post-Acute Care

Receiving a new resident without the necessary care information can have serious outcomes for resident care as well as facility reimbursement. According to a report published by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ASTP/ONC)1, only 42% of hospitals reported that they send summary of care documents to most or all external hospitals, and 38% reported that they send that information to most or all external ambulatory care providers. However, only 27% of hospitals that were routinely interoperable across all domains (defined as the ability to send, receive, find and integrate health information) sent electronic summary of care records to external long-term post-acute care (LTPAC) health providers. According to another Federal report on interoperability of health IT in long-term care2, while most skilled nursing and assisted living providers have adopted electronic health records, interoperability lags far behind. Relying on receiving fax information or being sent information in a timely manner from an acute care health information department can be futile. Assessing the value of participating in a health information exchange (HIE) may present an effective solution for both the long-term post-acute entity and the acute care organization.