Health Information Exchange in Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Case Study Findings: Final Report

The purpose of the study was fourfold: (1) describe the current status of the use of health information technology (HIT) in existing state-of-the-art health delivery systems (HDSs) and how health information is or is not exchanged with "unaffiliated" post-acute care (PAC) and long-term care (LTC) providers and other components of the health care delivery continuum (e.g., physician offices, laboratories, pharmacies, and hospitals) that use HIT; (2) identify the factors that support or deter the timely exchange of needed health information to and from unaffiliated PAC and LTC providers and other components of the health care delivery continuum that use HIT; (3) identify ways in which policy makers can encourage information exchange by HDSs that use HIT with unaffiliated PAC/LTC providers; and (4) summarize and organize information learned and describe the next steps that could be pursued to extend HIT into PAC/LTC.