HIT Benefits
Health Information Technology (HIT) has the potential to transform health care. The ability to integrate a patient’s health information into an electronic health record (EHR) and health information exchange offers multiple opportunities to improve overall care and coordination of health services.
Improve Patient Care
- Enhance coordinated care
- Improve communication across health care sectors
- Advance quality outcomes
- Enrich safety measures
- Strengthen patient privacy and security
- Engage patients through personal health records and patient charting
Improve Efficiency and Reimbursement
- Standardize protocols of performance through evidence-based best practices
- Reduce paper work in filling out forms and processing billing requests
- Eliminate duplicated workflow processes
- Decrease health care expenses with administration efficiencies
- Beginning in 2015, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements will be reduced if an HIT system is not in place
Improve Health
- Expand access to specialty services, particularly through telehealth
- Provide clinical decision support
- Identify and track population health
Implementation
Proper implementation ensures you receive HIT’s full benefits. Most importantly, HIT systems must fit the workflow of a clinician’s day to be used effectively and efficiently. Investing time and resources to train staff on project management and how to use the new technology is crucial, while effective guidance from leadership is needed to ease the transition from paper to electronic documentation. To assist you in identifying and developing workflows, information in this toolkit includes resources on:
Technology
EHR vendors are needed to supply technology and technical assistance, while broadband access is needed to support the technology. Since installing and adapting an EHR requires substantial investment, various funding sources are needed to aid implementation and reference resources on managing vendor relationships should accompany the HIT planning. To help providers become meaningful and efficient users of HIT, information in this toolkit includes:
Meaningful Use
Several states have mandates for components of meaningful use, such as e-prescribing, immunization registries, health information exchange and electronic health records. Many federal resources and websites concerning meaningful use are available, including financial incentives for each stage of adoption by hospitals and health care providers. To help guide providers, information in this toolkit includes:
Telehealth
Telehealth uses electronic information and telecommunications to provide health services from a distance, such as:
- Clinical health care
- Patient and professional health-related education
- Public health
- Health administration
While this toolkit does not contain resources on telehealth, the use of telehealth for health care delivery is supported by the Office for the Advancement of Telehealth (OAT), part of the Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP).
