What is the Clinical Health Information Exchange (cHIE)?
The cHIE provides a secure way for your participating medical professionals in Utah to access medical information about you, with your permission, in one convenient location. By using the cHIE, a participating physician can promptly locate certain health information about you, which will help to ensure your doctor has the results and reports they need to give you the best care possible.
How is participating in the cHIE going to help me?
By participating in the cHIE, you are enabling your medical professional to have access to your health information to provide better and more accurate care. With doctors being able to see your prior laboratory results or radiology reports, they are able to save time and money by not having to duplicate this work. This in turn reduces their costs which are passed along to you and your insurance payer.
Participating medical professionals can also refer you to other participating specialists or hospitals with greater ease, ensuring that all pertinent information is sent and viewable in one convenient location.
Additionally, by participating in the cHIE, it would allow an emergency room physician access to basic medical information about you if you should end up in the ER and are unable to communicate chronic conditions, allergies, or the medications you are currently using.
The cHIE allows all of your participating clinicians, with your consent, to access medical information about you regardless of where you receive care in Utah.
If you are interested in finding out more, please contact your participating health care provider or the UHIN cHIE Member Relations Team at chie@uhin.org
What information will be shared?
Within the Utah medical community, and at UHIN, we understand that this data belongs to you, the patient. Therefore, with your permission, medical professionals will be able to access laboratory results, x-ray reports, medication histories, patient discharge summaries, transcription records, immunization histories, and allergies which were added to the cHIE after 2007*.
Security is of upmost importance to UHIN. We are EHNAC accredited and comply with all HIPAA privacy and security rules. Furthermore, UHIN meets all Federal and State laws and regulations concerning privacy. All data is fully encrypted with many safeguards in place, and only authorized medical professionals may access this shared information.
As this is your information, you have the choice to control access to your health data with "Patient Consent." Read more about Patient Consent
How does cHIE protect your data? Review our Privacy Notice
Patient histories may be greater or less than this date by varying data source.
Does it Cost Me Anything?
No. There is no charge to you, the patient. Participating physicians, Hospitals, and many of the Utah-based payers are supporting the cost of operating the cHIE. They believe that the cHIE will bring you better quality health care at a lower cost.
Who Should Participate?
We recommend that everyone participates in the cHIE. Not only will the cHIE help in providing better care for you and your family, but it will also help in reducing costs for everyone. We feel that all patients in the state could benefit, particularly those in the following categories:
Persons with a Chronic Health Condition: If you have a chronic health care condition, the cHIE could be particularly useful in helping your clinicians coordinate your care. If you have any of the following, you should strongly consider participating in the cHIE:
Asthma
Heart condition
High blood pressure
Diabetes
Any other chronic health condition
Children: The cHIE will help keep track of your child's immunizations, allergies and medications.
Elderly: The elderly, particularly those with multiple health care issues, may benefit from the cHIE. The physicians that they see can more easily and effectively coordinate their prescriptions and other treatments. This becomes even more relevant as it may be difficult to remember all the medications that are taken and any past procedures that have been performed.
Better Quality Care
With the cHIE, your clinicians will have more complete information about you, and it won't be necessary for you to remember everything. They'll know when each child had their immunization shots (and what they were), what medications your elderly mother is taking (and the dose), and other information. Physicians will have information about your allergies, and the results of a lab or radiology study (so you don't have to be tested again (and again). One of the concerns of quality care is that the physician simply does not know something important about you when they're deciding a treatment plan. The cHIE will let them know, and as a result you will be receiving better and safer care.