DISCUSS: The increased value of Health Information Exchanges and regional Health Information Exchange has been demonstrated to improve safety, communication, and reduce redundancy of procedures and medication errors (McBride & Tietze, 2016). Health Information Exchanges (HIE) evolve in one of two ways: as private extensions of the electronic health record (EHR) systems of hospitals and integrated delivery networks (IDNs) or as independent, regional, community-based organizations (Langabeer & Champagne, 2016). Nationwide Health Information Network (NwHIN) is a common platform developed in 2004 for the exchange of health information across various entities, within several communities, located all across the United States (McBride & Tietze, 2016). The benefits of this platform have been well documented in several studies since the early 2000s. The platform primarily serves to improve coordination of care in a standard-based and secure platform among providers, healthcare organizations, laboratories, and pharmacies.250 WORDS
