LexisNexis Risk Solutions, CHIME Announce Results of Healthcare CIO Focus Group

ATLANTA, March 5, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- LexisNexis^® Risk Solutions, in collaboration with the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), announced the results of the second annual focus group of 31 healthcare executives highlighting their top priorities in 2019. Participants were Vice Presidents and Chief Information Officers from hospitals, nursing homes and health plans of varying sizes across the country.

Depending on the current phase of electronic health record (EHR) implementation, top priorities are as follows:

Organizations in the early phase of adoption and upgrades:

• Cybersecurity: Executives agree that up-front investments to protect patient information are necessary. Protection is considered both from outside and inside the organization as threats become more sophisticated. Participants use multiple layers of security, including one-time passwords, biometrics and knowledge-based authentication, to address vulnerabilities in the system infrastructure.
• Interoperability: Participants consider the interoperability challenge beyond internal and external data exchange. They underscore data consumption and its meaningful use; specifically, the need to deliver information into the clinical workflow of providers.

Organizations with an established data input and exchange infrastructure in place:

• Data governance: While most participants primarily handle data warehousing and are not yet responsible for data quality, they acknowledge that a silo approach to data governance does not work. They focus on an enterprise-wide effort that includes significant input from health information management and quality assurance. 
• Patient and provider directories: Maintaining current, complete and accurate patient records is a challenge, particularly during mergers and acquisitions. Maintaining accurate provider directories supports more efficient referrals and coordination of care.

Organizations in a mature phase of EHR deployment:

• Data analytics: Organizations need meaningful insights to risk-stratify patients, analyze payer mix, and more. In an effort to provide the highest quality care at the lowest cost, participants look to set accurate risk adjustment targets, which requires analysis of data for encounters spanning the entire care continuum. They discover that even at this mature phase of EHR deployment, data integrity is still a challenge in getting accurate insights. 
• Patient engagement: This is a strategic initiative for executives as they strive to provide healthcare consumers with virtual care options, personalize patient experience and enhance communication with providers. The topic of patient-owned medical records spurred a practical discussion: How can providers be confident they get access to a complete and accurate record to ensure they make accurate medical decisions? What if a patient decides not to share certain records? How will consumers who do not widely use technology, are chronically ill or lack access to internet be able to manage their records?

"The focus group shows that organizations are driven by the desire to do what's right for the patient, not merely complying with a regulation," said Josh Schoeller, SVP and general manager of LexisNexis Risk Solutions, Health Care. "This is evident in how they approach every challenge inherent in various levels of EHR integration: from ensuring accuracy of patient data, protecting it, and sharing it in a meaningful way to collaborating across departments to deliver personalized, high-quality care, to innovating to engage patients. Data governance is a complex, evolving journey, not a destination."

To access further details about the focus group insights, download a free report.

About LexisNexis Risk Solutions
LexisNexis^® Risk Solutions harnesses the power of data and advanced analytics to provide insights that help businesses and governmental entities reduce risk and improve decisions to benefit people around the globe. We provide data and technology solutions for a wide range of industries including insurance, financial services, healthcare and government. Headquartered in metro Atlanta, Georgia, we have offices throughout the world and are part of RELX (LSE: REL/NYSE: RELX), a global provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries. For more information, please visit www.risk.lexisnexis.com, and www.relx.com.

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