Electronic Connectivity Among US Hospitals Treating Shared Patients.

BACKGROUND

Increasing electronic health information exchange (HIE) between provider organizations is a top policy priority that has been pursued by establishing varied types of networks.

OBJECTIVES

To measure electronic connectivity enabled by these networks, including community, electronic health record vendor, and national HIE networks, across US hospitals weighted by the volume of shared patients and identify characteristics that predict connectivity.

RESEARCH DESIGN

Cross-sectional analysis of 1721 hospitals comprising 16,344 hospital pairs and 6,492,232 shared patients from 2018 CareSet Labs HOP data and national hospital surveys.

SUBJECTS

Pairs of US acute care hospitals that delivered care to 11 or more of the same fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries in 2018.

MEASURES

Whether a patient was treated by a pair of hospitals connected through participation in the same HIE network ("connected hospitals") or not connected because the hospitals participated in different networks, only 1 participated, or both did not participate.

RESULTS

Sixty-four percent of shared patients were treated by connected hospitals. Of the remaining shared patients, 14% were treated by hospital pairs that participated in different HIE networks, 21% by pairs in which only 1 hospital participated in an HIE network, and 2% by pairs in which neither participated. Patients treated by pairs with at least 1 for-profit hospital, and by pairs located in competitive markets, were less likely to be treated by connected hospitals.

CONCLUSIONS

While the majority of shared patients received care from connected hospitals, remaining gaps could be filled by connecting HIE networks to each other and by incentivizing certain types of hospitals that may not participate because of competitive concerns.