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Last week I came across this article entitled Top 10 EMR Installation Mistakes by Pete Rivera of Healthcare Informatics. Overall, this was a great list, but I was particularly struck by the second item listed in this top 10:
We deal with this topic a lot in our practice. Many healthcare organizations invest heavily in large EMR systems only to end up with digital information silos where paper based information silos existed before. Healthcare decision makers are left to wonder why they can’t simply rely on the reporting provided through their EMR system. We dealt with this at length in our white paper entitled, “Could EMR Software be Detrimental to Healthcare?”
The answer to this problem is interoperability. Interoperability is the ability of two or more components, applications or systems to exchange and use information. In the healthcare industry, interoperability more specifically refers to the ability of healthcare information technology systems and software to not only communicate and exchange data but to use the information being exchanged. The analogy used in our offices most often is interoperability as the digital nervous system of an organization. The backbone transports the standardized messages both to and from the end points and a brain that analyzes the messages traveling through the system. An interoperability solution helps to reduce redundant data entry, speed access to information and create a real-time flow of information through a healthcare information system. The key benefit of creating interoperability is to improve the visibility, sharing and re-use of data collection between disparate healthcare applications and devices – precisely the goal we have for EMR.
Healthcare providers are not realizing that the electronic record system they jumped into based on incentives through meaningful use needs to be fully integrated with financial and operational data sources to be a true value add. Add to this mix the possibility of integrating with partners under ACO, and this oversight could turn into a huge headache down the line. On the other hand, those organizations that realize the value of fully interoperable systems will become the true leaders in this healthcare information revolution.
A big thank you to Nate Osit (@NateOsit) for sending us a link to Fred Trotter’s (@fredtrotter) analysis of interoperability and meaningful use for his upcoming book. Good read.
You may also like:
- White Paper: Could EMR Software be Detrimental to Healthcare?
- Could EMR software make healthcare worse?
- 3 Reasons for using a Managed Private Cloud for Interoperability
- Promoting Connectivity Through Shared Health Data
- How the Healthcare CIO Saves Lives: #3 Decreases our Reliance on Paper
Tags: ACO, EHR, Electronic Health Record, Electronic Medical Record, EMR, healthcare IT, interoperability
John, I agree that far too many doctors have no one that is capable of talking to them about interoperability – and the government agrees. As a result, the ONC is the principal Federal entity charged with coordination of nationwide efforts to implement and use the most advanced health information technology and the electronic exchange of health information. The ONC acts as a clearinghouse for anything related to healthcare IT and is focused on the adoption of EMRs by providers at all levels – hospitals, health information exchanges and, especially physician practices. One of their key new programs is funding 62 regional health IT extension centers nationwide that are now assisting more than 70,000 mostly primary care physicians with EMR purchase, implementation, project management and other technical challenges of establishing and becoming meaningful users of certified EHRs. Their website has a page where a physician practice can enter their zipcode and locate the nearest regional extension center (REC) for help on their EMR. The goal of the ONC is to help 100,000 physicians in the next two years and the regional extension centers will be a key to local support.
Unfortunately, that is the reality facing healthcare technology customers today. There are too many systems that do not communicate with each other, making life for doctors, patients, and other users of these applications more difficult. It is not just that there is no one capable of talking to doctors. The issue is that the doctors do not have the time or the knowledge to fully understand what they are getting into. Sometimes they don’t really have a choice if they work for a medical center. More human integration needs to happen for system integration to be successful.
I agree that doctors should be working towards interoperability. Unfortunately, it takes 2 people to talk. Far too many doctors have no one that is capable of talking to them.