What is CIE?

A CIE^® is community-governed infrastructure that enables information to be effectively and responsibly shared among many organizations, using different, interoperable technologies, in support of holistic coordination of care and equitable systems change.

Specifically, a CIE enables the sharing of data among multiple kinds of stakeholders – such as providers who need to share data to provide more holistic care, people in need who must navigate complex systems of care, and researchers and decision-makers.

Building a CIE is a journey that begins with shared purpose and collaboration. The resources below can help your community learn what it takes to build a CIE—from bringing partners together and setting shared goals to designing systems that make collaboration easier and more equitable. Download the following guides to learn the “nuts and bolts” for building a CIE, understand the value, vision, and impact behind the CIE model, and access practical guidance and a checklist for building CIE data and technology infrastructure.

CIE Toolkit

CIE Value, Vision, and Impact

CIE Data and Technology Guide

CIE Features

Network Partners

Shared Language

Integrated Technology

Resource Database

Community Care Planning

Network Partners

Within a CIE, network partners commit to redefining a patient/client thinking beyond their individual programs and services.

Network partners are willing to re-engineer their business processes to better connect individuals to services and share new levels of information necessary for collective impact to address systemic needs and realize a shared vision for a healthier community.

Partners contribute to a CIE in different ways based on their organizational capacity and role within the community.

They also share challenges and best practices, inform policy decisions, champion expansion of the network, and contribute to the ongoing development of the technology platform.

Shared Language

The use of an individual longitudinal record is rooted in a shared language, which is informed by a deep understanding of the social and economic systems that influence whether the conditions where people live, work, learn, and gather contribute to positive or poor health outcomes and quality of life. Known as the social determinants of health, these conditions are shaped by access to power and resources and include neighborhood and built environment, social and community context, economic environment, educational environment, and health services

14 Domains

CIE presents a holistic view of a person’s needs through a series of screenings and assessments identifying the nature and severity of needs across 14 domains. The assessments feed into a CIE Risk Rating Scale measuring a person’s immediacy of need, knowledge and utilization of resources, and barriers and supports. Risk Rating Scale score ranges from crisis to thriving in each domain.

Integrated Technology

A technology platform enables the integration of data from multiple partners’ data systems and that populate a longitudinal record of a person’s interactions with the health, human, and social services systems. Creating a single longitudinal record of an individual’s history and system interaction enables partners to accept and make referrals, coordinate with other providers, and send alerts and notiﬁcations facilitate community care planning.

Resource Database

Partners also have access to a resource database that enables them to efficiently match individuals with appropriate care providers based on their needs. Most communities can leverage their 2-1-1 infrastructure that hosts a comprehensive resource database that includes standardized listings of health, human, and social services providers’ service offerings, eligibility, and intake information. A resource database is a critical component to establishing a closed-loop, bi-directional electronic referral process.

Community Care Planning

CIE enables communities to shift away from a reactive approach to providing care and enable partners to integrate data from multiple sources and make bi-directional referrals to create a longitudinal record that promotes a proactive, holistic, person-centered system of care.

A CIE facilitates community care planning by offering tools built within the technology that allows agencies to share individual demographic information, status changes, and care team information, and to contribute to the community-wide care plans.

Other features of the CIE technology platform are a resource database and bi-directional closed loop referrals. The resource database enables providers to efficiently match individuals with appropriate care providers based on their needs. Bi-directional information sharing allows providers to accept and return referrals and share data about program enrollment and outcomes.

Partners can communicate with each other and receive notifications and alerts of significant events. For example, when an ambulance is called, care team members (network partners) are notified so that they can proactively anticipate individuals’ needs and make referrals.

Impact of a Community Information Exchange

Impact

Improvement in Health Indicators

Improve Quality of Life

Address Inequities (Race, Gender, Cycle of Poverty)

Outcomes

State of Wellness

Change from Domain Specific to Whole Person Care

Change in Intervention and Interaction with People Helping People

Outputs

Record Direct Referrals Look-Ups

Record Creation

Data Sharing

Direct Referrals

CIE Benefits

CIE offers distinct benefits to individuals, partners, and the community at-large.

Individual and Family (Micro)

Individuals benefit from a universal, person-centered record of life events and system interactions enable providers to proactively tailor services to individual needs. Using a universal longitudinal record also supports trauma-informed care by reducing the need for individuals to repeatedly share their experience and situation to different service providers. The CIE allows for responsive and proactive system allowing helpers to initiate a connection to individuals rather than putting the burden on individuals and families who may be in crisis.

Agency (Mezzo)

At the agency level, a CIE empowers providers to efficiently collaborate with providers across sectors using a shared language and shared outcomes to deliver comprehensive care while generating referrals through the system.

Community (Macro)

A CIE provides the community with insights into broader trends building a system that can proactively address unmet needs and barriers, as well as disparities in access to services. These data also can be used to inform local planning and funding priorities and to advocate for policy change.