Healthcare Information Systems: CHIN, RHINO, NHIN, and HITECH Act

This paper examines the Community Health Information Network (CHIN), Regional Health Information Organization (RHINO), National Health Information Network (NHIN), and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, defining each and illustrating their interrelationships. It emphasizes how RHINOs form the foundation of the NHIN, and how the HITECH Act supports electronic health information exchange. The paper highlights the role of electronic health records (EHRs) as central to both RHINOs and CHINs, and discusses how the CHIN, RHINO, NHIN, and HITECH Act all contribute to the development of patient-centered management systems and EHRs, ultimately aiming to improve healthcare quality and patient care coordination through recent, accurate, and complete patient information.

1Running head: HEALTHCARE
Healthcare
Name of student:
Name of university:
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The present paper defines the terms Community health information network (CHIN),
Regional health information organization (RHINO), National health information network
(NHIN) and Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH
Act), and describes the relationship between these terms. In addition, the paper explains the
relationship of the mentioned terms to the development of a patient-centred management
system and electronic health records (EHRs).
Istepanian et al., (2014) define Community Health Information Network (CHIN) as
the web-based net of computer systems responsible for allowing electronic exchange of
financial, clinical and administrative information among different entities in healthcare
settings. The aim of such a system is to bring improvement in the delivery and efficiency of
healthcare. More precisely, it is a technology-based information service that is used for
maintaining optimal health of all members of a community. A CHIN is created through the
electronic integration of health care-related information and resources that are geographically
dispersed. A salient feature of this system is that the services are available to all the
stakeholders who collaborate to share the retrievable information. A Regional Health
Information Organization (RHINO) is a particular group of organisations within a precise
area sharing information pertaining to healthcare in an electronic manner. It is pivotal to
maintain the set healthcare information technology (HIT) standards at all levels. A RHINO is
entrusted with the role of overseeing the process by which the exchange of information is
facilitated among the various payers, government agencies and provider settings.
The Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) is referred to the set of policies,
services and standards that promote secured and safe exchange of health information over the
internet. This valuable inventiveness is sponsored by the Office of the National Coordinator
(ONC) for Health Information Technology (HIT), whose initiation was made in the year
2004. Participants in the NHIN are required to support data content and web services that are

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common and enable interoperable and secure information communication among
participants. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health
(HITECH) Act, came into existence in the year 2009, as part of the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act for the promotion of meaningful use and exchange of health information
technology (Kushniruk et al. 2013).
The interrelationship between the above mentioned terms is remarkable. As put
forward by Wager et al., (2017) RHINOs form the foundation of the NHIN. Through the
facilitation of electronic health information exchange, the technology helps to improve care
simultaneous to lowering of health care costs. The authors envision a NHIN that is capable of
facilitating the exchange of records wherein records would be exchanged through RHINOs.
The HITECH Act is an up-to-date example of federal support given to health information
exchange. HITECH demands electronic health records be interlinked in a manner that
improves healthcare quality. Sligo et al., (2017) opined that at the time of launch of CHIN,
there was the absence of a proper standard that could be used for making comparisons
between different forms of healthcare information exchange. The RHINOs, however, come
into focus in a landscape that is marked by more diversity. The efforts of RHINO are
multidimensional that have been tested against time for its robustness. While HITECH might
be beneficial for meeting start-up costs, it might not be efficient to produce a value
proposition that is convincing for those losing from informed healthcare. As highlighted by
Nguyen et al., (2014) electronic health record (EHR) is the fundamental element to both
RHINO and CHIN since it is elementary for creating a standard for patient information
exchange. Financial incentives and support provided through the HITECH Act are expected
to augment the development of RHINOs around the different countries. Overall, CHINs are
to be perceived as the building blocks of RHINOs, and, RHINOs are to be perceived as the
building blocks of the NHIN.

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It is noteworthy that CHIN, RHINO, NHIN and HITECH Act are all directed towards
the development of a patient-centred management system and electronic health records
(EHRs). EHR is the form of medical record that is developed for medical professional use in
an authorised manner. Generation and maintenance of EHR are done with the purpose of
facilitation of patient care. Since information can be exchanged between different care
providers, a comprehensive care plan can be outlined for each patient in an efficient manner.
The underpinning principle is to provide recent, accurate and complete patient information is
a legal and ethical manner, so that patient care is more coordinated (Abdelhak et al. 2014).
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that EHR is at the centre stage of
developing a national health information network. Making improvements in the EHR
infrastructure would underpin the patient-centred management system, linking health care
providers for the betterment of patient care.

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References
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