Health Information Exchange Capabilities in Skilled Nursing Facilities

The purpose of this study is to determine the levels at which health information exchange is used by skilled nursing facilities for clinical functions, the benefits and barriers associated with health information exchange and telehealth/telemonitoring capabilities, and the facility characteristics associated with health information exchange capabilities. A cross-sectional design was implemented. Data were collected from nursing home administrators, using a mail and online survey approach. A total of 156 usable questionnaires were returned of 397 distributed—a 39.30% response rate. The highest level of electronic exchange for clinical functions was within the facility than within corporation/affiliated organization or with nonaffiliated providers. It was also more prevalent in for-profit skilled nursing facilities than nonprofit skilled nursing facilities. More than half of the facilities reported no electronic exchange for functions, such as public health reporting, diagnostic test orders/results, medical orders/e-prescribing, advance directives, lab orders/results, and radiology orders/ results. Similarly, telehealth/telemonitoring was not in wide use by facilities in the state. The greatest barriers to electronic exchange of clinical functions were financial barriers, technological barriers, and connectivity barriers. Faster and accurate billing, improved care planning, and improved quality of documentation were reported as benefits of electronic information exchange of clinical data with affiliated and nonaffiliated providers.