State Health Information Exchange Partnerships With Pharmacy Organizations and Educators

Community pharmacies have not traditionally been represented in Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) both as members submitting relevant patient information as well as accessing this information to improve care provided. Likewise, although there are requirements in accreditation standards on graduates’ abilities to utilize electronic forms of patient information, health professions academic programs have not traditionally incorporated HIEs into their curricula. South Dakota's HIE, South Dakota Health Link (SDHL), was conceived in 2006 and has grown its network to include most hospitals and clinics in the state. SDHL partnered with a regional community pharmacy chain, Lewis Drug, and a health profession academic program, South Dakota State University College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions, in order to pilot integration of HIEs into community pharmacy and Doctor of Pharmacy curricula, respectively. The community pharmacy pilot integrated the HIE in clinical service workflow and demonstrated increases in pharmacist confidence providing services, productivity, and financial reimbursement. The academic pilot replaced ‘paper cases’ with use of a simulated electronic health record supported by a ‘sandbox’ version of the HIE for a simulated medication history interview activity. Assessment of documentation following the interview demonstrated similar student performance as previous years despite increased technological complexity.