Sandy’s Parting Clouds Shed Light on Information Sharing

While the news headlines rightfully focus on the storm’s tragic devastation and the people’s struggle to recover, the parting storm clouds shed light on our own potential gaps and shortcomings.

In the days and hours before Sandy plowed through the Northeast, local, state, and even federal officials warned of impending danger. Then the Super Storm hit land. While hospitals did what they could to brace for the hurricane, news reports indicated that flooding and power outages forced NYU Langone Medical Center to evacuate 260 patients. At Bellevue Hospital located in New York, more than half of the 725 patients were transferred when the storm hit. The remaining patients from Bellevue had to move to a different facility later that week.

As patients are carefully relocated, we’re reminded of the increasing need for careful coordination, particularly in healthcare. We’re reminded of the need for secured sharing of patient information to ensure continuity of care.

Now the spotlight is on health information exchange (HIE) technology to fill this need. There are many HIE vendors that facilitate this information sharing. However, many providers continue to struggle to achieve the desired results that HIEs are meant to achieve—connectivity.

See for yourself what 200+ providers are saying in this latest KLAS report Health Information Exchange 2012: Muddled in the Interfaces.