NURS 658 Achieving Interoperability Discussion

Week 1
Achieving Interoperability in Times of Change Paper

A hospital system has acquired a cancer treatment center
that does not currently have an electronic health record system.

Complete the two-system merger interactive scenario to get
started.

Then briefly research the functions, significance, and
factors that affect implementation of EHR technology discussed in the textbook.

Compose your paper discussing each listed component in APA
format, citing a minimum of two scholarly resources in addition to the assigned
reading. Examples of scholarly sources include professional journal articles
and books obtained from library databases, national guidelines, and informatics
organizations, published within the last five years. A title page is not
necessary, but you do need to include a reference page.

Your paper should be 2 to 3 pages in length.

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One of the most significant requirements in providing high-quality care also is one of the most difficult to achieve — true interoperability between healthcare providers, systems, technology and the healthcare information each of these parties needs to achieve their respective goals. Interoperability is a problem throughout healthcare as disparate vendors, complex processes and clinical standards create tremendous barriers to delivering improved patient experiences and better patient care outcomes.

NURS 658 Achieving Interoperability Discussion

Rising costs, reduced Medicare reimbursements, increased pressure to improve the patient experience, and a shift to value-based care all mean that providers (and the entire healthcare industry) must move toward improved healthcare interoperability. Health information technology, those creating the information systems, other healthcare parties (including payers) and providers must be able to speak to one another to achieve an interoperable healthcare system.

Healthcare as a whole must take on these challenges, but there are several major hurdles in the way. Until these are addressed, interoperability in healthcare might remain little more than a high-browed talking point. Here, we examine the four primary challenges that those of us in healthcare face.

Lack of Consistency When Identifying Patients
Currently, there is no consistent way of identifying a patient across the healthcare spectrum, throughout large healthcare systems or even across a network of providers. How are patients identified? By their name, date of birth, Social Security number, most commonly. The problem is that each instance of this information is stored in different ways in different systems meaning patient identification errors are possible.

According to many patient advocacy groups, one solution is the creation of a national, unique patient identifier. A patient identifier would be similar to an individual’s Social Security number in that it is theirs throughout their lifetimes and would be used at every point of care. The benefits of a patient identifier are that it would be a code that sorts, categorizes, and identifies an individual no matter what system or provider used. As in all things “political,” the efforts for moving such an effort forward seemed locked in a stalemate.

NURS 658 Achieving Interoperability Discussion

For years, organizations, including advocacy groups HIMSS and CHIME, have pushed for a national patient identifier. They reason that as health data exchanges continue to evolve, the need for a consistent, accurate way to identify patient health records is becoming more and more pressing. Thus, the lack of a nationally uniform patient identification system has resulted in increased healthcare facility costs, health data exchange inefficiencies and patient safety threats, among other pervasive problems.

The creation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) called for the creation of a unique patient identifier. Congress subsequently overruled this mandate because of patient privacy concerns. A highly vocal minority fear governments or industry will exploit patient data and that privacy might be even harder to protect if an identifier were to be used. However, without one, it’s challenging to link disparate data to obtain a comprehensive picture of anyone patient’s healthcare experiences. Thus, before industry-wide interoperability can become a reality, federal agencies will need to prioritize standardizing all aspects of patient health record exchange.

NURS 658 Achieving Interoperability Discussion