About Us

The Brooklyn Health Information Exchange (BHIX) was incorporated in July 2007, as an independent, not-for-profit corporation devoted to facilitating patient-centric care and promoting improved healthcare quality, affordability and outcomes for New Yorkers. A Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO), BHIX was founded by several of Brooklyn’s leading healthcare organizations, including hospitals, long-term care providers, home-health providers and health insurers. BHIX Participants represent an increasing portion of entities providing health care services across the continuum of care in Brooklyn.

BHIX’s priorities focus on improving the quality of care for Brooklyn’s 2.5 million residents, many of whom are elderly and struggle with chronic and co-morbid conditions. By advancing the use of a secure, computerized health care information network which empowers patients to grant viewing access to authorized health care providers, BHIX will streamline the flow of health information and improve the delivery and outcomes of healthcare for the Brooklyn community.  The data available through BHIX comes from a growing variety of Health Information Sources.

In a medical emergency, BHIX can help save lives by offering providers immediate access to crucial patient health data. By connecting to other health facilities, BHIX will enable health care providers to access the most up-to-date, accurate patient information available, even if the patient is unable to communicate. 

BHIX will also improve routine medical care. BHIX empowers patients to assist providers to make the most accurate diagnoses, reduce the incidence of duplicative or unnecessary tests and prescribe the best treatment.  Once authorized by a patient to use BHIX, doctors and other clinicians will be able to spend more time diagnosing and treating patients and less time obtaining health information and histories.   As patients move from outpatient to inpatient and long-term care, continuity of care can be enhanced through BHIX.

BHIX is being built by a unique collaboration of providers and payers working together to find ways to improve the quality, safety and efficiency of care. The BHIX Governance structure includes representatives from multiple stakeholders in the public and private sectors.  Day to day operations are managed by the BHIX Staff and policy development is guided by a robust Committee structure.

Privacy Protections are critical to trustworthy health information exchange and are at the core of the BHIX initiative.  The BHIX Privacy Committee meets regularly to address the many complex issues surrounding patient consent and to recommend appropriate policies. Additionally, BHIX staff and Board representatives participate in State initiatives to develop successful policies for health information exchange. BHIX representatives participate in the work of the New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC) to ensure BHIX policies are aligned with statewide developments related to privacy protections and other related issues.

BHIX also works to evaluate the progress and impact of RHIOs as they are developed. Working with the ’s Health Information Technology Evaluation Consortium (HITEC), BHIX is actively evaluating how health information exchange provides value and improves the coordination of care across Brooklyn’s healthcare delivery system.