Short Primer on HIT data

As i trudge along unlearning and relearning fundamentals in my class, i thought it might be a good idea to pen down some of it.

Some key terminologies
Data: Empirical observations, symbols, numbers. They simply exist with no structure. A "know nothing" stage
Information: Data organized with relationships. No necessarily useful but is the building block for eveything else.. A "know what" stage
Knowledge: Information that has a pattern and is useful. Enables decision making. A "know how" stage
Understanding: Allows use of the known based on principles and fosters new knowledge. A "know why" stage

The types of information in a typical healthcare setting are as follows:
Internal , External and Comparative
Internal information may relate to
Patient encounter (patient-specific or aggregate) & (clinical or administrative)
General Operations
Exernal information is knowledge based
Comparative information - Outcome measure (over a period of time or against standard)
Common categories of benchmarking are patient satisfaction, practice patterns, health plans, clinical indicators, population measures.

A few key standards to note
ICD-9-CM is also known as international classification of disease Clinical modification. It is used to determine diagnostic related group. Critical to accurate institutional reimbursement
CPT - Current procedural terminology. It is used to provide information on medical and surgical services.
CMS 1450 and CMS 1500 are 2 common billing standards

A health executive needs to be sure of the source of the information, its accuracy and semantics. Given multiple standards agencies and multiple forces acting upon the healthcare organization, it is important to have a common understanding of the terms. A good reference is the document embedded below. It is taken as from the hhs.gov website as a reference.
Some key takeaways from a definition standpoint are given below:

EMR - Electronic medical record - Maintain within organization boundaries and owned by the provider
EHR - Interoperable data maintained to be shared across organizations in conformance with national standards
PHR - Personal heatlh record - Individually owned and maintained

Health Information Exchange is the entity that will facilitate the EHR exchange nationally. They will work with Regional Extension Centers (Health Information Organization). HIOs will collaborate with Regional Health Information Organization which are collaborated network between providers in a specific geography.