Ehr Interoperability Paper

Patients are taking an aggressive role in their healthcare needs. Patients desire to in touch with their medical records. Medical professionals are utilizing the Electronic Health Records to implement current data into information necessary to provide quality care for the patient. Thereby, managing patients’ current, and past histories. To understand what is occurring today, one must recognize why patients are taking an active approach to their healthcare.

This article describes The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act’s (HITECH) “meaningful use” objective to create a nationwide system of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) in order to improve patient safety, quality of care, privacy and security. The authors point out that during the first two years of an EHR implementation, clinicians and hospitals must meet certain requirements in order to qualify for federally funded incentive payments totaling up to $107,750 per clinician. This incentive is meant to ease the financial challenges smaller practices might face as the United States works toward a more technically collaborative information care system, EHRs promise to provide.

Currently, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) announced their vision for attaining national interoperability in the Health IT infrastructure. Claiming that “achieving this goal will only be possible with a strong, flexible health IT ecosystem that can appropriately support transparency and decision-making, reduce redundancy, inform payment reform, and help to transform care into a model that enhances access and truly addresses health beyond the confines of the health care system.” (“A 10-Year Vision to Achieve an Interoperable Health IT Infrastructure,” n.d.)

One of the most important characteristics of an EHR while storing the clinical information is its ability to be interoperable: to share that information among other authorized users. If different information systems cannot communicate or interact with each other, then sharing is not possible. In order to achieve the objective to exchange clinical

This Stage 1 started from 2011-2012, its objective dealt with data capture and sharing, these sheets are providing these services to assist professionals and hospitals understand the requirements of each objective and demonstrate meaningful use success. This stage also allows qualified providers to receive their payment after fulfilling nine core objectives and one public health objective. The second stage of the Meaningful Use is Stage 2 started in 2014; it dealt with the advanced clinical processes. This Stage introduces new aims and measures, as well as higher entries; it also required health care providers to prolong EHR capabilities to a greater portion of their patient populations. The last stage of the Meaningful Use is Stage 3, this Stage it still in a building phase. Its objective will be focusing on improving quality, safety, efficiency, and leading to improved outcomes. Even though the details of this program have not been finalized, Meaningful Use Stage 3 will work to make the program easier to understand. It will provide the professionals (EPs) and hospitals the ability to exchange and use information between electronic health records, and improve patient outcomes. Based on the current timeline, healthcare providers have the choice to begin Stage 3 Meaningful Use in 2017 but are not permitted to use it until

Containing ninety participants, 36% of the respondents were hospital CIOs and I.T. executives, 19% from integrated delivery systems headquarters, 19% from group practices, and 27% from other facilities. Survey results pertained to patient health records, electronic health record (EHR) certification, and other IT issues in healthcare. According to the survey, “81% of respondents said their I.T. budgets will grow, with the most common prediction being growth of 5% to 10%. Implementing electronic health records was the No. 1 software investment priority for the coming year for hospitals, integrated delivery systems and group practices alike.” (CIOs Predict Future Trends, n.d) Interestingly, despite the economy at the time showing signs of a recession, “the vast majority of health care organizations expect their information technology budgets to grow during the next fiscal year, and this growth is driven primarily by a need to improve access to information for clinicians, the survey shows.” (CIOs Predict Future Trends, n.d) This improved access to information can be applied to patients as well, as the push towards cloud storage and record/test results access alleviates the need to wait, call, and require record searches from the physician’s staff. On the subject of streamlining access to the implementation to patient EHRs, 19% of

The passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act encouraged and mandated the use of health information exchange (HIE) technology in the healthcare industry. The time had finally come to enter into the electronic age, and learn how to integrate electronic health records (EHRs) into their environment. Evolution and revolution are never easy, and several issues will arise during the transition. As EHR utilization spread through healthcare organizations, problems with interoperability became evident. How could healthcare organizations successfully achieve interoperability, and collect consistent patient data? A data dictionary may be the key to unlocking an accurate and efficient HIE.

It has only been within the last five years that health information management (HIM) has experienced exponential changes, due to the healthcare reform. The electronic health record (EHR) is connected to health information exchanges and other systems of interoperability. The timely completion of charts, coding and release of information (ROI) has become much more efficient with the electronic record. Traditional HIM functions will just be transformed and will always be an integral part of successful patient care. Professionals must be flexible and willing to adapt and even generate change. As Health Information Technology continues to evolve, so will the roles

Interoperability is often a word frequently used as a goal to strive for when improving healthcare in the United States. Encouraging the utilization of health information exchange has been cited as a potential way to improve efficiency, increase safety, and enhance quality of care. There are numerous examples of how linking information between multiple data sources leads to a non-trivial task. When two operations are collecting the same data, but are recording information in different formats, it can be nearly impossible to bridge the information between those systems. Standards are important because they can facilitate mutual understanding during in regards to communication and health measures in the context of population health.

As the implementation of electronic health records (EHR) progress nationwide, the concepts of interoperability and health information exchange (HIE) must be discussed. The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (2005, p. 2) define interoperability as “the ability of health information systems to work together within and across organizational boundaries in order to advance the effective delivery of healthcare for individuals and communities.” Interoperability is the enabling of two systems, including those that do not share

“An electronic health record (EHR) is a digital version of a patient’s paper chart. EHRs are real-time, patient-centered records that make information available instantly and securely to authorized users.” (healthit.gov) The EHR mandate was created “to share information with other health care providers and organizations – such as laboratories, specialists, medical imaging facilities, pharmacies, emergency facilities, and school and workplace clinics – so they contain information from all clinicians involved in a patient’s care.” ("Providers & Professionals | HealthIT.gov", n.d., p. 1) The process has proved to be quite challenging for providers. As an

An interoperable EHR system will foster faster, quality and more efficient care by allowing clinicians and physicians’ access to the individual’s medical record in its entirety. It will proffer research, new best practices, and pharmaceutical suggestions to treat the patient based on their symptoms and illnesses (Commission on Systemic Interoperability, 2005). It is prudent to follow certain processes such as initiating, planning, executing, closing, monitoring and controlling processes in order to implement the EHR properly.

EHR Interoperability is the ability of one computer system to communicate with another computer system. Example: When buying a cell phone with a plan. Level zero would be only one phone but with level 3 it would be 3 phones. They would all share the same data plan and be able to communicate with each other. It benefits the patient because they can have access to their medical records without going to the doctor’s office. It also benefits the providers because they don’t have to make phone calls to other offices or track down information they need when its available in the EHR.

In my own words, health care interoperability is nothing short of essential. Interoperability’s basis falls on the exchange of data, but moving more specifically it’s the ability to exchange data regardless of the many different systems and/or codes of multiple Health Care establishments to finally end in the proper use of this data to improve quality of health care. Interoperability’s definition is very specific and in today’s world I view it as a goal that the Health Care system wishes to achieve. There are many different Health Care establishments that are spread all across the world. It is important for everything to be able to not only be transferred but to be understood. Interoperability is very important because health situations can

In health care, patients’ lives are in the hands of the health care practitioners, health care organizations, insurance companies, and to some degree, even health care technology. The growth and future implications of evidence-based medicine (EBM) through improvement of technology in health care are important today, because health care practitioners and organizations want to ultimately decrease cost, improve quality of care, and increase access to health care (Glandon, Smaltz, & Slovensky, 2014, p. 28). One way to achieve these goals is through the implementation and improvement of EBM and interoperability which will enhance the efficiency of work production resulting in these positive outcomes. According to Glandon, Smaltz, and Slovensky (2014), EBM is an “information management and learning strategy that seeks to integrate clinical expertise with the best evidence available to make effective clinical decisions that will ultimately improve patient care,” (p. 6). “Interoperability is the ability of different information and communications technology systems and software applications to communicate, to exchange data accurately, effectively, and consistently, and to use information that has been exchanged,” (Iroju, Soriyan, Gambo, & Olaleke, 2013, para. 1). Without interoperability and EBM, fundamental data and information such as patient records cannot be easily shared across and within enterprises having a direct impact on the quality of care. It