Health information exchange, system size and information silos

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Health Economics
• Information Systems

Background:

• Data sharing in healthcare offers potential cost savings and quality improvements through electronic patient data exchange.
• Federal subsidies for health information technology often depend on the capability for data sharing.
• Understanding data sharing patterns is crucial for effective health policy and technology adoption.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate empirical patterns of electronic patient data exchange among hospital systems.
• To identify factors influencing internal versus external data sharing by hospitals.
• To evaluate the implications of current subsidy strategies for health data technology.

Main Methods:

• Empirical analysis of electronic patient information exchange within and between hospitals.
• Examination of the relationship between hospital system size and data sharing practices.
• Analysis of commercial costs as a driver for data exchange behavior.

Main Results:

• Larger hospital systems demonstrate higher rates of internal electronic patient data exchange.
• Conversely, larger hospital systems exhibit lower rates of external patient information exchange with other hospitals.
• Commercial costs associated with external data sharing appear to be a significant factor influencing these patterns.

Conclusions:

• The strategy of leveraging large users to drive platform adoption can inadvertently create information silos.
• Current federal subsidies for health data technologies, focusing on data sharing capability ('meaningful use'), may be misaligned with actual data exchange.
• Policy interventions should consider incentivizing actual data sharing rather than just the technical capability.