While long-term care has long discussed the importance of health data exchanges, it’s rare to be able to give concrete examples of how it makes a patient — or provider’s — life better.

One would hope, certainly, that HIEs (Health Information Exchanges) facilitate this happening all the time. But it was notable when HealthlinkNY, which runs the Health Information Exchange in a southwest section of New York, reached out with a story about a provider and an unknown cancer diagnosis.

Skilled nursing facility Absolut Care in Endicott, NY, had a 64-year-old resident in deteriorating health, HealthlinkNY executive director Staci Romeo told me. An ultrasound revealed a lump on his thyroid, but a doctor said to recheck it in six months rather than do a biopsy.

Call it gut instinct: A nurse practitioner wanted to check the records, and the director of medical records at Absolut Care, Donna Grover, agreed to do a little digging on the resident’s health picture.

The plan to wait another six months “didn’t seem right,” Grover said.

When Grover examined the HIE records, it was discovered the resident had received an aspiration biopsy four years ago that was positive.

“It turns out that the resident had been seeing an endocrinologist before he came to our facility, but we weren’t told about it during intake. So we were able to send him go back to his old endocrinologist,” Grover said. The resident is now “back on the right path.”

The lack of knowledge about the biopsy or endocrinologist goes “goes right to the heart of the day-to-day struggles providers have,” Romeo said. “In order to give the very best care for the residents, they need all the information.”

While every state or region may have variances in HIE, the overall mission is to have the data in one place. Otherwise, there is a long list of challenges in piecing together the resident’s health history: One, a family member may struggle to be keeping up with their loved one’s medical records. Two, the resident himself may or may not remember pertinent details. Even once a provider reaches out to a physician or hospital, it’s complicated, Romeo explained.

“The speed is so important. Without HIE you have to figure out who you have to call. They you have to reach them, they then have to fax it, then you have to get it to the people who need it. It can slow down the care that is needed.”

From a cost perspective, part of the financial picture depends provider’s relationship with their electronic health records vendor. While there are vendor costs for the EHR to tap into the information exchange, Romeo noted a web portal option available with the patient’s consent.

Plus, think of the time savings. Grover said her list of what she uses HealthlinkNY for is “a mile long.” It includes lab results for urine, stool and wounds.

“We can catch things so fast,” she said. She checks on the status of residents who are hospitalized, such as knowing whether they are waiting for a bed, what the diagnosis is, and when they are expected to return.

No matter what the process, there’s a solid return on investment in relationship to clinical staff time and avoiding readmission. Grover said for billing purposes alone it’s worth it. When a person is hospitalized, it’s faster to access the records in HealthlinkNY than calling the hospital records department, she said.

“It used to take two weeks to get records,” she said. “Now, I get the information I need in a couple of clicks.”

Romeo noted when Absolut Care started using HIE, it had a 23% readmission rate.

In the first quarter of 2018, that rate was 0%. Both women call HIE a major factor.

“The HIE was a key part of how we reduced our readmission rates,” Grover confirmed.

Follow Senior Editor Elizabeth Newman @TigerELN.