Question

NHIN Direct: ONC Keeps It Simple in Effort to Jumpstart Data Exchange: The federal government is creating a stripped-down version of the nationwide health information network to aid the meaningful use program.

Discuss the methods by which NHIN will reduce healthcare costs while improving its quality? Do you agree with the benefits of NHIN such as improvements in healthcare quality? Why or why not? (Approximate length: 300-400 words)

Answer 1

NHIN (Nationwide Health Information Network) - Reduce healthcare costs, improve quality

- Office of the National Coordinator incubates NHIN.

NHIN goals

• Avoids medical errors; get a more holistic history of patients; before taking a course of action
• Improve access to health information; so that patients have better alternatives
• minimize redundant tests; reduce costs; minimize the time required to collect a patient's history
• Decrease health barriers

Meaningful Use Program as per the Recovery Act - Minimum standards for using Electronic Health Records

• use of certified EHR; promoting adoption of EHRs
• Introduce clinical decision support, and, increase a threshold of criteria compliance
• Focus on robust health information exchange

Benefits of NHIN, improvements in healthcare quality

• Implement NHIN alternatives; fostering Regional Health Information Organizations.
• The Government is working on an electronic health information exchange to quickly send a digital copy of medical records.
• Thousands of volunteer hours, and, millions of dollars, have been spent to advance the security, privacy, and transmission standards for such an exchange. The country is decades away from a true Federal Government NHIN.
• NHIN direct aims to join the Federal meaningful use EHR facility program, and, fast-track the providers' ability to exchange information.
• NHIN Lite is for the simple health exchange. It supplements wider-reaching NHIN exchange.