KLAS: Only a few vendor HIE models currently replicable

While numerous vendors are touting their software for health information exchange, only a handful of companies to date have had more than a few successes in facilitating the transfer of patient data between multiple organizations, a new report suggests.

Research firm KLAS Enterprises was able to validate 89 "live" HIEs using commercial software to exchange data among facilities not owned by the same organization, using connectivity products from a total of 22 different vendors. The majority of vendors has one to three validated HIE sites, KLAS says, while only a few companies have been able to show that their model is replicable.

Medicity's NovoGrid, which mostly concentrates on acute-to-ambulatory data exchange, had the most live sites, with 22, KLAS reports, largely because it follows a simple approach to move test results from hospital and reference laboratories to physician offices. McKesson's RelayHealth subsidiary had eight acute-to-ambulatory HIE sites by facilitating secure communications.

In acute-to-acute data transfer--the primary focus of the KLAS study--Axolotl is the leader, with seven validated HIEs, according to KLAS. Epic Systems also can claim seven sites, though KLAS considers that company to be a special case because its Care Everywhere software only connects Epic customers right now.

"It's no great surprise that, so far, the most successful HIEs are those with the least complex approaches," report author Jason Hess says in a KLAS press release. "The eclectic way that clinical information is structured, stored, labeled and shipped makes it very difficult for vendors to connect all of the discrete data elements," he says.

"In the majority of cases, HIE vendors are opting to pass around packets of information without necessarily taking ownership of what is in the packet," Hess adds. But in the absence of full integration with an EMR, this strategy requires users to take some sort of manual action to see the data.

To learn more about KLAS' findings:
- read this Healthcare IT News story
- see this KLAS press release

Related Articles:
HIE market heats up with state grants, looming EMR deadline
CalRHIO 'effectively shut down' after negotiations with state fail
Panel told of difficulties with lab results exchange