A framework for assessing patient crossover and health information exchange value

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Neurosurgery Outcomes
• Healthcare Systems Analysis

Background:

• Health Information Exchange (HIE) facilitates data sharing between healthcare providers.
• Understanding patient movement between hospitals is crucial for optimizing healthcare delivery and resource allocation.
• Neurosurgical patients often have complex care needs requiring coordinated services across different facilities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the benefit of health information exchange (HIE) by examining patient crossover rates.
• To develop a methodology for analyzing patient crossover behavior for broader application.
• To inform decisions regarding investment in HIE systems.

Main Methods:

• Utilized neurosurgery inpatient visit data from Emory University Hospital (EUH) and Grady Memorial Hospital (GMH).
• Identified unique patients with visits to both hospitals using name and age classification.
• Calculated frequency of flow patterns, time between visits, and crossover rates for specific diagnoses.

Main Results:

• 5.25% of patients with multiple visits utilized neurosurgical departments at both EUH and GMH.
• Among crossover patients, 77% visited the level 1 trauma center (GMH) prior to EUH.
• Analysis provided insights into patient flow and potential HIE value.

Conclusions:

• Detailed analysis of patient crossover behavior deepens the understanding of HIE's potential value.
• The study highlights that patient crossover may be underestimated due to the specific neurosurgical inpatient population studied.
• The developed methodology can be applied to larger, more general patient populations to assess HIE benefits.