The ONC released an issue brief addressing regional Admission, Discharge and Transfer notifications.
The brief, which was prepared for ONC by Audacious Inquiry, voiced support for greater exchange of ADT notifications to improve care coordination and nationwide interoperability.
Here are five insights from the brief.
1. Health information organizations are increasingly using ADT messages to notify providers when a patient has an interaction with another hospital in their region.
"ADT alerts are designed to improve the timely flow of information so providers and case managers can quickly and effectively address the healthcare needs of their patients transitioning in and out of care settings," according to the brief.
2. ADT notifications have the potential to support care coordination across various healthcare organizations, including providers and payers. This increased data exchange could facilitate reduced hospital readmissions, improved patient health and decreased healthcare costs, according to the brief.
3. HHS has assisted HIOs in the development of ADT infrastructures in order to build nationwide interoperability. For example, ONC awarded $2.5 million to four health information exchanges to participate in the Advance Interoperable Health IT Program Supplemental Award, which focused on ADT notifications.
4. The brief details four types of regional ADT exchange network infrastructure models that have developed over the past two years, including point-to-point models; hub models; MPI query models; and SHIEC patient centered data home approaches. The point-to-point, hub and SHIEC patient centered data home models have a basic set of similarities, while the MPI query model may be more difficult to integrate.
"Generally, because the barriers to participation are considerably low for most of these models, a given HIO could reasonably participate in multiple models if it were in their strategic interest," the brief reads.
5. The brief concluded inter-HIO ADT sharing is an actionable goal.
"There is a certain fatigue and skepticism that accompanies new and ambitious data sharing initiatives, especially when those initiatives are nationwide in scale," the brief reads. "However, there is reason to have measured optimism. As described above, the simplicity of many of the models suggest that enabling inter-HIO ADT sharing is practically accomplishable."
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