Collaborating for COVID-19: Hospital Health Information Exchange and Public Health Partnership

Background: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic highlighted the need for effective communication and information sharing among health care organizations and public health systems (PHSs). Health information exchange (HIE) plays a vital role in improving quality control and efficiency in hospital settings, particularly in underserved areas.Objective: This study aimed to investigate the variation of HIE availability among hospitals based on their collaboration with the PHS and affiliation with Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) in 2020, as well as variation by community social determinants of health.Methods: The primary data set used for this study comprised the linked data set of the 2020 American Hospital Association (AHA) Annual Survey and the AHA Information Technology Supplement. The measures used included the hospital's participation in HIE networks, availability of data exchange, and HIE measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, including whether hospitals effectively received electronically transmitted information from outside providers for COVID-19 treatment.Results: The sample size of hospitals ranged from 1,316 to 1,436, depending on different outcomes related to HIE questions. Of the hospitals surveyed, similar to 67% reported public health collaboration and ACO affiliation, while 7% reported neither. Hospitals without public health collaboration or ACO affiliation were more likely to be located in underserved areas. Compared with hospitals without public health collaboration or ACO affiliation, hospitals with both were 9% more likely to report the availability of electronically transmitted clinical information from outside providers and to participate in local and national HIE networks. Furthermore, these hospitals were 30% (marginal effect [ME] = 0.30, p < 0.001) more likely to report effective receipt of information from outside providers for COVID-19 treatment and 12% (ME = 0.12, p = 0.02) more likely to always/often receive clinical information for COVID-19 treatment electronically.Conclusions: Hospital collaboration with the PHS and ACO affiliation are associated with greater availability of electronic health data, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.