Participation in Health Information Exchange Yields Time, Cost Savings

Almost 90% of participants reported that having access to data from a health information exchange improved the quality of patient care, according to the results of a study published online October 2013 in the Annals of Emergency Medicine and presented at the 2013 annual meeting of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP). The study, which included 532 patients who were treated in 11 emergency departments in South Carolina from February 2012 to January 2013, found that use of the exchange data resulted in a mean time savings of 105 minutes per patient and a cost savings of almost $2,000 per patient. Among other savings, the data indicated that having access to a healthcare information exchange saved $2,073 in avoided laboratory/microbiology services (187 patients), $476,840 in avoided radiology services (298 patients), $6,461 in avoided consultations (61 patients), and $551,282 in avoided hospital admissions (56 patients).