4.2: Federal Health Information Exchange

Use Bidirectional Health Information Exchange to enable the Department and Veterans Affairs clinicians to access each other’s health data in real-time.

Other Information:

COLLABORATION EFFORTS TO DATE - Since 2001, the Department has provided Veterans Affairs with one-way historic information through the Federal Health Information Exchange when a service member separates from the Service. For each separated service member, the Department sends over a dozen categories of information, including standard ambulatory data, laboratory results, radiology reports, outpatient pharmacy data and allergy information. As of December 2009, using the Federal Health Information Exchange, the Department transmitted health data on more than five million retired or discharged service members with data dating back to 1989. Approximately 1.8 million of these individuals have presented to Veterans Affairs for care, treatment or claims determination. This number grows as health information on recently separated service members is extracted and transferred to Veterans Affairs on a monthly basis. For shared patients being treated by both the Department and Veterans Affairs, the Departments use the jointly developed Bidirectional Health Information Exchange system implemented in 2004. Using Bidirectional Health Information Exchange, the Department and Veterans Affairs clinicians are able to access each other’s health data in real-time. Access to Department discharge summaries is operational at some of the Department’s largest inpatient facilities representing approximately 62 percent of total inpatient beds. With efforts beginning just prior to 2004, the Bidirectional Health Information Exchange has grown so that, as of December 2009, there are more than 3.5 million shared patients, which includes 1.7 million patients not in the Federal Health Information Exchange repository, and over 173,300 Theater patients. Federal Health Information Exchange/Bidirectional Health Information Exchange inquiries during 1st quarter FY 2010 averaged 60,500 per week. Since 2006, the Department and Veterans Affairs have been sharing computable outpatient pharmacy and allergy data through the interface between the Clinical Data Repository of the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application system, Department’s Electronic Health Record, and the Veterans Affair’s Health Data Repository. This initiative integrates outpatient pharmacy and medication allergy data for shared patients, which is viewable by providers in both Departments. Built into this exchange is the capability for drug-to-drug and drug-to-allergy checks. As of December 31, 2009, the Departments exchanged computable outpatient pharmacy and medication allergy data on over 50,400 patients who receive healthcare from both systems.

Stakeholder(s):

• Department and Veterans Affairs

Indicator(s):

Indicator:1

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