Health Center Guidelines for Implementing FHIR and the Information Blocking Rule Health Center Guidelines for Implementing FHIR and the Information Blocking Rule This resource provides guidance to health centers for implementing FHIR in compliance with the Information Blocking Rule.
Sensitive Information and the Electronic Patient Record Sensitive Information and the Electronic Patient Record With nearly 100% of community health centers utilizing electronic health records (EHR) to care for patients, focus has pivoted from implementation and new workflow development to enhancement in order to drive value and reflect patient needs and population trends. EHR technology presents potential opportunities and significant constraints. Providers frequently document and share potentially sensitive information in the EHR, such as risk for intimate partner violence (IPV), consistent offers of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), or patient sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI). Capturing such information can be immensely helpful in providing care tailored to individuals’ needs, but additionally challenges teams to develop workflows that keep the data private rather than risk harm to patients through improper or unintended disclosure.
FAQ: How can health centers comply with both 42 CFR Part 2 and the Information Blocking Rule? FAQ: How can health centers comply with both 42 CFR Part 2 and the Information Blocking Rule? Many healthcare providers, including health centers, are concerned about reconciling the need to protect patient privacy under HIPAA and 42 CFR Part 2 while avoiding interference with electronic health information sharing and violating Information Blocking regulations.
Insights from the Field: Key Considerations for Implementing Health Information Exchange Insights from the Field: Key Considerations for Implementing Health Information Exchange As medical care facilities seek to support patient safety and be responsive to their complete medical needs and histories, health centers also recognize that establishing an infrastructure for data sharing must be a top priority. Better practices for Health Information Exchange (HIE) increase patient wellbeing by giving providers more complete information for clinical decision making, eliminating unnecessary procedures and tests, reducing the burden of paperwork, and lowering costs. In 2020, HITEQ interviewed five groups that implemented clinical data sharing infrastructure in health care settings, including Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). A set of example use cases were developed from these interviews, and we identified ten themes that may help guide other organizations interested in implementing HIE. Information from 1424 qualified health centers and health center look-alikes from the CY2019 Uniform Data Set also informed the current impact of data sharing, indicating that technology and potential workflows exist to support HIE within FQHCs. View the key considerations gleaned from this research to identify lessons learned related to establishing HIE within a health center setting. The resource is available in the Documents to Download section below.
Glossary of HIE terms and links to related sites Glossary of HIE terms and links to related sites This document lists key HIE terms and links the term to further information.