Oh RHIO, Where Art Thou?

My experience at the State RHIO Consensus conference in DC was educational, but it lacked definition. Literally. A lot of great ideas were thrown around but everyone was reading from their own page when defining what a regional health information organization (RHIO) does or what health information exchange (HIE) should be all about. Then again, we were there to reach a consensus.

Convene. Coordinate. Operate. These three action items are the necessary steps to create a solid health IT infrastructure. They represented the template the conference leaders worked from.

A RHIO fits the first two and HIE the last. A collaboration of individuals representing the major health care centers convene to set policies, protocols and standards for HIE. They coordinate underlying parties and align objectives towards the common goal they reached when they were convening. Finally, the HIE represents the technical operations of setting up how the exchange will occur. The programming and technological tools that will make it work.

Beyond definitions, here are some of the neat ideas that emerged:

1. A council of states to set privacy, safety and quality standards
2. Getting rid of duplicate patient records and creating a Master Index
3. Concentrating on state borders for HIE
4. Setting up an accreditation board for vendors (beyond CCHIT)