Running head: HIM 350 MILESTONE ONE: INTRODUCTION
Milestone One
Southern New Hampshire University
HIM 350 MILESTONE ONE: INTRODUCTION
Milestone One
Memorial Hospital is the largest trauma hospital in Manchester County. The hospital has
been having a difficulty sharing information and coordinating the care of their patients
throughout the care cycle. When a patient is discharged from the hospital, there is no way to
track the patient's outcomes unless they revisit or are readmitted to the hospital. It also takes a
great deal of time to retrieve the patient's medical information a patient comes into Memorial as
a new trauma patient or is transferred from a different hospital. These challenges have led to
further issues such as duplicate tests, delays in diagnoses, increased medication errors, more
hospital readmissions, and decreased patient satisfaction. To prevent these issues from continuing
and stalling patient care, Memorial Hospital has joined a board that is leading an initiative to
create a new community-wide health information exchange (HIE) network. The primary
objective for establishing the Manchester Health Access Network (MHAN) is to link all
healthcare providers in the region and improve care coordination via a secure network of
electronic medical record systems.
Organizations should be able to view the most recent plan of care of the patient in order
to provide accurate and efficient care. Information and data that should be exchanged between
organizations are demographic information, progress/clinical notes, operative reports, medication
lists, laboratory reports, radiology reports, vitals, diagnoses, and hospital admission and
discharge notes. A main issue at Memorial Hospital is that when a patient is transferred from a
different hospital it takes a great deal of time to retrieve the patients' medical records. When this
information is exchanged it eliminates the need to duplicate forms and tests. It also assists the
provider in providing quality care when they have the complete medical record.
HIM 350 MILESTONE ONE: INTRODUCTION
Though providers and health care organization (HCO) would like to have as much access
to patients' information, some patient would not like their information to be shared. Patients have
the right to refuse to participate in the HIE and can limit who can view their information (Sayles.
2018, p. 196). Within HIE is consent management which the patient consents the health
information organization (HIO) to transmit health information between two or more authorized
entities. If the patient does not consent to their information being exchanged, then it should not
transmit any patient's health information to or from other authorized healthcare entities" (Sayles,
2018, 196). Additionally, according to the American Medical Association, "sensitive health
information may not be included in the patients records from the HIE if the patient has not
provided the necessary consent" (2018). Mental health diagnoses, drug and alcohol treatment,
and sexually transmitted disease identification are considered to be especially sensitive
information.
There are three types of HIE models that could be implemented but the one that suits the
needs of the MHAN is the hybrid model. The hybris model is the 'best of bot