JAHIMA: Real-World RHIO

In what could be the next buzzword, J AHIMA has an article on the experience of one Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO): ‘…The pilot project was not without obstacles. One of the most difficult was, and continues to be, overcoming the organization-centric mentality of the leaders of stakeholder organizations. Hospitals and reference laboratories often find it difficult to see any value in participating in community initiatives by offering access to their own information system, especially when they must pay to support the network�s information infrastructure. However, physicians and their offices strongly prefer a single point for accessing patient data�they do not want to visit multiple Web sites, maintain multiple user accounts, and learn different applications. In addition, it is impossible to create a true continuity of care record when healthcare systems remain independent. After the two hospitals in the pilot program began delivering results to physicians electronically, the physicians pushed nonparticipating hospitals to join the community initiative…’ The article mentions that they had to lash together proprietary systems using HL7, some of which did not support HL7. What specific software’s used was not mentioned.

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