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An emerging piece of the EHR landscape is the RHIO, the Regional Health Information Organization.  Since this is key element of the national plan for interoperable health records, resellers should understand the intent, structure and politics of these organizations.

The idea behind a RHIO is to facilitate the interoperability of electronic records.  But what exactly does this mean?  There is no single blueprint and various pioneering organizations have chosen different models.

One model worth studying is Healthbridge in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Healthbridge is a non-profit organization funded by the 18 hospitals which represent 90% of the hospital activity in this metropolitan area of 2.2 Million people.  These competing hospitals chose to work together to reduce the cost of sharing information with area physicians.  To deliver information such as lab results, hospital discharge summaries, radiology reports, and the like, the hospitals build a single electronic conduit, to Healthbridge.  Healthbridge then delivers the information to the physician in a variety of formats –secure internet portal, via an interface to the physician’s EHR, or via U.S. mail.  The hospitals have saved millions of dollars in medical records costs through this collaboration.

In total, between the 18 hospitals there are over 60 hospital critical care systems which are tied into Healthbridge, which recently has been delivering 1.4 million results to over 4000 physicians each month.  Since all the funding comes from the hospitals, physicians access the results for free.

Healthbridge was recently written up in HealthLeaders Magazine as a financially viable, national model for a RHIO.  You can learn more about HealthBridge here.

Healthbridge does not retain clinical records, it merely serves as a conduit to deliver messages.  This model allows it to avoid many of the privacy and security issues which surround electronic records.  Other RHIOs have taken different approaches, creating a clinical repository, akin to a centralized, common electronic medical record. 

So what do RHIOs mean for the reseller?  For resellers in the Cincinnati area, Healthbridge reduces the cost of implementation and increases the benefits of the EHR system by providing a vast array of information with a single interface. 

Other RHIOs, depending on the ownership and governance, might be competitors who promote a single EHR solution.  Still others might become referral sources, if you build an interface with them.  There are well over a hundred fledgling RHIOs around the country, few of which are anywhere close to where Healthbridge is.  These organizations are slowly gaining traction, working through the difficult issues which arise from competitors who try to come together and collaborate.  Some will succeed and others will fail.  One thing is clear --  resellers should keep their ear to the ground, understand the activity in their area, evaluate the emerging RHIOs, and decide how your EHR solution can interface.

For more information on EHR training for Medical VARs, e-mail Gary Pritts at: gpritts@eagleconsultingpartners.com

Gary Pritts is not an employee of InvestMed; he is a healthcare, business and information systems consultant with 25 years of experience.  To contact Gary with questions about this article or general government initiatives in healthcare, visit his website at:  www.eagleconsultingpartners.com