A Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO)

A Regional Health information organization (RHIO) is an electronic network of patient medical information gathered from multiple health care organizations in a geographic region. This is a multi-stakeholder organization that enables the exchange and use of health information, in a secure manner, for the purpose of promoting the improvement of health quality, safety and efficiency. The stakeholders in a RHIO consists of Hospitals, physicians, patients, health plans and insurers and public/governmental health agencies.
The ultimate objective is to improve the speed, safety, quality, and efficiency of healthcare as well as access to healthcare through the efficient application of health information technology. Avoiding readmissions, avoid medication errors, improve diagnoses, decrease duplicate testing and reduce costs.
State RHIO has not been highly successful because of the OPT-IN. Opt-in causes difficulties gathering data. Becoming Opt-out can improve
Allow shared costs of common IT infrastructure. Economies of scale
Framework for data sharing among competing organizations
Challenges and Barriers in RHIO. Perceived as a negative. Too costly, lack of sustainability models. There is too many security and trust issues among competing entities. They are uncomfortable with the concept of “sharing” clinical