Health Information Exchange

The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (NH DHHS) has received an award in the amount of $5.5M from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), Title XIII – Health Information Technology, Subtitle B – Incentives for the Use of Health Information Technology, Section 3013, State Grants to Promote Health Information Technology. The purpose of the award is to promote Health Information Exchange (HIE) that shall advance mechanisms for information sharing across the health care system.

The New Hampshire Health Information Exchange Planning and Implementation Project (HIEPI) is a four year initiative lead by NH DHHS to plan and implement a New Hampshire Health Information Exchange capability (NH HIE). Funding for this Project is to be provided by the ARRA State HIE Cooperative Agreement Program. The goal of the Project is to establish a mechanism to electronically link health care providers in order to share patient-centric information in a timely, secure, and confidential manner. New Hampshire is well positioned to undertake this task, in that many New Hampshire providers are using electronic medical records but lack the connectivity needed for the universal sharing of this information. Evidence suggests that such sharing shall improve health outcomes, reduce the rate of medical errors, and help to control health care costs.

The acquisition and deployment of Health Information Technology (HIT) and Health Information Exchange (HIE) throughout the healthcare system(s) in New Hampshire offers a unique opportunity to make substantial progress in improving the health of our citizens. The direct benefits include: improved patient safety and healthcare quality, enhanced public health, healthcare cost reduction, access to care, and consumer engagement and empowerment. It is vitally important that the State of New Hampshire have a strategic vision for both the implementation of information technology and a system of connectivity that will provide for the free exchange of information among providers throughout the state. HIT and HIE is a core pillar of our healthcare system.

At its core, HIT and HIE efforts are about providing New Hampshire's citizens with a safe, high quality, cost-effective, and consumer-friendly healthcare system. The potential benefits of HIT and HIE to both consumers and the healthcare system as a whole presents a compelling list of reasons for a coordinated, focused, public/private initiative.

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