Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #109145

Katherine Cauley, PhD¹, Mary M. Crimmins, MA, John Pascoe, MD, MPH³, and Richard Schuster, MD, MMM⁴. (1) Center for Healthy Communities, Wright State University, 140 East Monument Avenue, Dayton, OH 45402, (2) Department of Pediatrics, Wright State University, Children's Medical Center, One Children's Plaza, Dayton, OH 45404, 937-641-3277, john.pascoe@wright.edu, (3) School of Medicine, Wright State University, 3139 Research Blvd, Suite 205, Dayton, OH 45420

Gathering data on services utilization of the health uninsured is difficult work. Typically using multiple hospital emergency rooms, the health uninsured, often eligible for Medicaid and other public sector services, move sporadically through health and human services agencies, often receiving duplicative tests/diagnosis/procedures, and continually increasing administrative and uncompensated care costs. In the Dayton, Ohio community, a broad based coalition of health and human/social services organizations have developed a web based central data repository to better coordinate cross sector services and to monitor services utilization of health uninsured. Through HIEx (HealthLink Information Exchange) over forty health and human services organizations, identified as Portal Agencies, refer residents to specialized health care outreach workers using this HIPAA compliant, standards based electronic health information management system. As a person is referred from any Portal Agency, documentation of service utilization is built into their record. For example, if Ms. Smith were referred from the hospital ED and WIC, HIEx records both referrals documenting two places where Ms. Smith received services. This aggregate data can be used to better coordinate and plan for services utilization among health uninsured. Additionally, once Ms. Smith has been identified as a person in need of services, the specialized outerach workers can also use HIEx to determine eligibility, create public health applications, and track/monitor all referrals made. Lessons learned and best practices from this successful project in Dayton will be reviewed.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the functions of the community-wide central data repository called HIEx (Health Information Exchange).
• Identify ways to improve continuity of care using HIEx.
• Explicate cost savings, reduced duplication of services and other advantages to using HIEx in the pubilc health sector.

Keywords: Health Management Information Systems, Information System Integration

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.