Interoperability Update: Where are the gaps?

As we move into the New Year, I thought it would be interesting to see some stats on where we stand on interoperability, according to a report published by the ONC just this past August and the ONC website (http://dashboard.healthit.gov/)

As a reminder, HIMSS approved the following definition of interoperability in 2013:

“Interoperability is the ability of different information technology systems and software applications to communicate, exchange data, and use the information that has been exchanged. Data exchange schema and standards should permit data to be shared across clinicians, lab, hospital, pharmacy, and patient regardless of the application or the application vendor.”

Lets look at each part of that definition and how our system is measuring up: COMMUNICATE

• almost 100% of hospitals have the infrastructure to enable data exchange
• But 59% of hospitals report that their exchange partners lack the EHR capabilities to exchange data

So while providers have the network, internet access, hardware, and other tools necessary, there is still a large percentage of them that do not have a fully functioning EHR or other software tool that will enable them to exchange data with others.

EXCHANGE DATA

• 76% of non-federal Acute care hospitals electronically exchange lab results, radiology reports, clinical care summaries OR medication lists with outside providers
• But the rates of exchange varies widely, and only 1 in 10 hospitals use ONLY electronic means of data sharing.

This means that while on the surface, a large percentage of hospitals report that they electronically share clinical data, the extent to which they really do so is disappointing. No matter how good a hospital is at providing data electronically, if any of the data is not available to the provider at the time of care, work flow breaks down and the patient suffers.

USE THE INFORMATION

• Hospitals reported that over 80% of them can query patients outside their own health information system
• But only slightly over 50% of them routinely electronically notify a patients PCP when they have been admitted to the ER

Having the capability to query ones patients in a remote system is fine, but care givers don’t have time to proactively monitor their patients. Their workload and work routines require them to be EVENT DRIVEN. Access to data that does not consider the workflow or care giving process is not useful.

Hospitals need to focus on data exchange technologies that are flexible, quick to implement, easy to support, and that provide data that can be used across the full spectrum of the care continuum and by all providers in their eco-system. The tool must push and pull data and provide alerts and notifications based on the providers workflow and notification preferences and be vendor agnostic. Wondering where you can find such a tool?  

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