The increasing cost of health care in the US has led to numerous innovations, among them the adoption of health information systems. Although there is more secure electronic data transfer, the most medical information of Americans is stored in the office cabinet and boxes. The adoption of the health information system has improved access and transfer of customer information hence enhancing quality and speed. The paper seeks to analyze the concept of electronic health information, the structure, challenges, and benefits for various stakeholders. Also, data terminologies for HIE and the significance of data quality will be analyzed.
Electronic health information (HIE) is a modern health care reform created to improve health information by addressing issues related to providers and consumers. HIE was formed to allow health providers i.e., nurses, doctors, pharmacists, and patients, to access medical information electronically. The structure of health information exchange entails the movement of health-treated information among various health care organizations and systems to facilitate easy access to clinical data. The three major types of HIE include Directed Exchange, which involves the sending and receiving of patient’s secured data between various providers ( Feldman, Bhavsar & Schooley, 2019) . Query-Based Exchange enables providers to search for patients' information from different health care providers. Lastly, Consumer Mediated Exchange allows collection, maintenance, and control of the patient's personal health information.
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The major challenge facing HIE is ensuring the privacy and security of patient's information across the entire process of exchanging data. Health care organizations need to adhere to the set of security information by the state and federal government ( Wu & LaRue, 2017) . The increasing amount of data in the system is overwhelming to the care providers. HIE offers range of benefits to stakeholders. HIE enhances the electronic sharing of patient's information across various care providers, making it easy to access and confidently share patient's medical history with medical specialists. Also, HIE ensures a timely transfer of vital patient information to ensure informed decisions to avoid medical, diagnosis, and testing errors ( Wu & LaRue, 2017) . HIE benefits the consumers by making it possible to access and control the use of their medical information. HIE also improves rural health outreach, making it possible to conduct public health services.
Standardized terminologies in the health care act as universal adapters. Standardized terminologies play a crucial role in facilitating the flow of data to achieve interoperability among multiple system users. Clinical terminologies and data standards in HIE ensure collaboration with various health care organizations, government agencies, Medicaid, and others. Enhancing the quality of data in HIE is paramount as the US healthcare system transit into electronic health records. Data quality help in reducing many errors and adverse incidents which arise from inadequate data information ( Guerrazzi & Feldman, 2020) . Data quality is significant in enhancing research and information exchange leading to a reduction in the cost of health care.
HIE is crucial to the consumers, especially on its ability to enhance communication between care providers and consumers. Consumers are interested in the aspect of electronic health record-keeping, which makes it easy to access and exchange health information ( Feldman, Bhavsar & Schooley, 2019) . The health records are available in the database, making it easy to access health services in any health center nationwide. Today, various states have collaborated and contributed positively to the success of HIE in the United States. According to research, 56 states received State Health Information (State HIE) Exchange Cooperative Agreement Program awards in 2010 ( US Department of Health and Human Services. (2011) . The awards fund various states to improve the capacity for enhancing the exchange of health information within and across states.
References
Feldman, S. S., Bhavsar, G. P., & Schooley, B. L. (2019). Consumer perceptions of health IT utilization and benefits. JAMIA Open , 2 (1), 99-106.
Guerrazzi, C., & Feldman, S. S. (2020). Health Information Exchange: What Matters at the Organizational Level?. Journal of Biomedical Informatics , 103375.
US Department of Health and Human Services. (2011). State Health Information Exchange Cooperative Agreement Program. US Printing Office. HealthIT .
Wu, H., & LaRue, E. M. (2017). Linking the health data system in the US: challenges to the benefits. International journal of nursing sciences , 4 (4), 410-417.
