Healthcare providers are being asked more and more to share diagnostic data through electronic health records (EHRs), but what kind of impact can that have on patient outcomes?

The authors of a new study published in the American Journal of Managed Care studied two years of CMS Hospital Compare (HC) data and the American Hospital Association Annual Information Technology supplement database to see how the sharing of diagnostic data through EHRs may have impacted patient care. The team focused specifically on outcomes related to pneumonia and heart failure (HF).

Overall, when a hospital shared radiology report data within its own system, it was associated with “significantly lower mortality scores for pneumonia.” When a hospital shared radiology report data with hospitals from another system, it was associated with “significantly higher HF mortality scores.”

So what causes these two conflicting trends? The authors had a few ideas.

“It is possible that hospitals within a system share EHR data more effectively due to team dynamics,” wrote lead author Darwyyn Deyo, PhD, of the Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute, and colleagues. “Further, as hospitals in different systems may have different EHR systems, there may be unique difficulties with sharing data across systems.Sharing of some diagnostic data, such as radiology reports, may also be limited in that EHR records often do not contain the radiology images, causing a mistake made before the data are entered into an EHR system to be transmitted across systems that cannot validate the original information.”

Digging deeper into hospital habits, Deyo et al. found that 72 percent of hospitals shared radiology reports with providers within the same system. Meanwhile, 36 percent of hospitals shared radiology reports with providers outside their system. They noted similar statistics for the sharing of laboratory results.

“For both types of diagnostic data, we found that more hospitals shared data with physicians within their own system than with physicians outside their system,” the authors wrote. “If hospital sharing is limited by communication or compatibility among different EHR systems, the ability of EHRs to improve patient outcomes or access to care may be limited in the long run.”