Interoperability has been a red-hot trend in health IT for some time, and it has never been more important. In order to deliver the best care with the best outcomes caregivers need access to patients’ complete medical records – and all available information. That cannot be achieved without interoperability of systems and data.
Here, five healthcare interoperability experts from Boston Children’s Hospital, CitiusTech, Holon Solutions, Medicomp Systems and Q-Centrix offer healthcare CIOs and other health IT leaders some best practices for making sure interoperability technologies and strategies are optimized to reap the best results for individual healthcare-provider organizations.
Interoperability as a powerful business tool
Interoperability, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, said Jon Zimmerman, CEO of Holon Solutions, a point-of-care data-integration-technology vendor.
“Providers care the most about their patients, their time and their income: We should always ask ourselves, ‘What can interoperability do for them?'” he said. “So, when we think about interoperability, we should not think about it only as a technology, but rather as a powerful business tool to help achieve prioritized objectives for enterprises, practices and patients.”
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Perhaps, he suggests, health IT leaders should start with “why.” Why would a provider find value in interoperability? How might interoperability:
- Improve their patient’s experience or life?
- Save them time?
- Enable them to increase their income?
“The good news is it is happening today,” he said. “Some are using interoperability technology to ensure that referrals are not only sent electronically, but also completed properly and efficiently. These cases include both traditional providers in the industry, but also include community resources such as transportation and housing authorities.”
Source: Healthcare IT News