Electronic connectivity between hospital pairs: impact on emergency department-related utilization

To use more precise measures of which hospitals are electronically connected to determine whether health information exchange (HIE) is associated with lower emergency department (ED)-related utilization.

We combined 2018 Medicare fee-for-service claims to identify beneficiaries with 2 ED encounters within 30 days, and Definitive Healthcare and AHA IT Supplement data to identify hospital participation in HIE networks (HIOs and EHR vendor networks). We determined whether the 2 encounters for the same beneficiary occurred at: the same organization, different organizations connected by HIE, or different organizations not connected by HIE. Outcomes were: (1) whether any repeat imaging occurred during the second ED visit; (2) for beneficiaries with a treat-and-release ED visit followed by a second ED visit, whether they were admitted to the hospital after the second visit; (3) for beneficiaries discharged from the hospital followed by an ED visit, whether they were admitted to the hospital.

In adjusted mixed effects models, for the first two outcomes, beneficiaries returning to the same organization had significantly lower utilization compared to those going to different organizations; for the third outcome, those returning had higher utilization. Comparing only those going to different organizations, HIE was not associated with lower levels of repeat imaging or likelihood of admission following hospital discharge. HIE was associated with lower likelihood of hospital admission following a treat-and-release ED visit (1.83 percentage points [-3.44 to 0.21]).

Differing utilization for beneficiaries returning to the same organization could reflect better access to information or other factors such as aligned incentives.

HIE is not consistently associated with utilization outcomes reflecting more coordinated care in the ED setting.