HIM Should Take Ownership of HIE, Patient Portal

HIM is changing, we all know this.  The world of paper-based - or even hybrid-based - medical record departments are joining the Dodo birds and dinosaurs in extinction.  One day, a lot sooner than we may think, museums will display ugly paper charts and people will be shocked to think we got our healthcare off of scratched on pieces of paper.

In this new EMR-based world, HIM has to find new avenues to lead.  We have to adapt and change to stay relevant, or we'll fall off and get left behind.

One emerging area that HIM must lead, is in the area of HIE and patient portal.  At their core, these functions are really just the latest methods to drive the release of information process.  As such, HIM professionals and their staffs are more than able to drive this and have the backgrounds to make them successful and compliant. 

Patient portals are very important as it relates to meeting Meaningful Use Stage II requirements and Patient Centered Medical Home criteria.  MU requires that at least 5% of the organization's unique patient population view, transmit or download their health information from a portal; PCMH requires that at least 10% of each surveyed area's unique patient population views, transmits or downloads their PHI.  Obviously you need to focus on the more stringent of the two, and HIM can help drive this.

A workgroup should be put together, chaired by an HIM professional, to govern each organization's PHR.  This group should include at least one physician or nurse practitioner, someone from PR, someone from training, a nursing representative, someone from IT and clinical unit/clinic directors.  They should help make design decisions, review data on usage of the portal and help keep it relevant and focused.

To be successful with a PHR, hospitals will need to have their own staff participate.  Organization's should incentivize their staff to sign up to help meet their required numbers.  They also need total buy-in from all staff to promote the PHR to their patients so that they enroll and use this wonderful tool, you can't have the nurse enroll the patient and then have the doctor say it's a piece of junk.  Also, look into having every touch point sign up your patients: Guest Services, Nursing, Providers, HIM/ROI, Patient Access, etc.

As for HIE's, the same principle applies.  HIM should help drive the converstaion about which HIE an organization chooses and what documents are posted to it.