NUR 514 Discuss the importance of interoperability between EHRs and other disparate systems and the impact on improving quality and access to care

Interoperability in healthcare is the ability of different systems, services, and devices to communicate with each other and share data. It enables providers to access patient information from various sources, including hospitals, pharmacies, insurance companies, labs, home health organizations, and more (Bates & Samal, 2018). Interoperability between Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and other disparate systems is essential in order to improve the quality and access to care. The development of EHRs has allowed for a more efficient way of managing patient data across multiple healthcare providers, resulting in improved patient outcomes. However, without interoperability between EHRs and other systems, such as laboratory and imaging systems, it is difficult to access the most up-to-date patient information (Yadav et al., 2018). Without an integrated approach to healthcare data exchange, clinicians cannot easily coordinate care or proactively manage patients’ health needs.

Workflow analysis is a process for examining the tasks and activities that an organization undertakes in order to identify areas of improvement, automate processes, and improve the overall efficiency of business operations. It involves analyzing how things are currently done in order to identify any gaps or inefficiencies that exist in the existing system. Workflow analysis examines how data flows between different systems, identifying any gaps, obstacles, or redundancies that may arise as a result of the lack of inter-system communication. By analyzing the workflow, clinicians can identify potential problems in their current processes and develop strategies for improvement. Additionally, workflow analysis can be used to assess the impact of new technologies on healthcare data exchange and inform decisions about which systems should be integrated in order to achieve interoperability.

References:

Bates, D. W., & Samal, L. (2018). Interoperability: What is it, how can we make it work for clinicians, and how should we measure it in the future? Health Services Research, 53(5), 3270.

Yadav, P., Steinbach, M., Kumar, V., & Simon, G. (2018). Mining electronic health records (EHRs) A survey. ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), 50(6), 1–40.

Interoperability plays a significant role in ensuring easier and faster transfer of EHR of patient between providers. It is less associated with medical errors as communication is done accurately by all the providers, preventing repetition and performing redundant tasks. Improving care quality and access is associated with increased patient safety, the efficiency of care, and cost reduction. In addition, quality interventions reduce the possibility of medical errors among patients, and comprehensive patient assessment and interventions translate to improved care quality(DeNisco, 2021).

Workflow analysis can identify areas where there is a delay in information or where the worker performs repetitive tasks, hence identifying interoperability issues. In addition, it can help identify areas where healthcare providers need more reinforcement for effective interoperability in the organization. It can also identify where providers in different departments perform unnecessary or repetitive tasks to make interoperability quick and effective.

References:

DeNisco, S.M. (2021). Advanced practice nursing: Essential knowledge for the profession (4th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Click here to ORDER an A++ paper from our Verified MASTERS and DOCTORATE WRITERS NUR 514 Discuss the importance of interoperability between EHRs and other disparate systems and the impact on improving quality and access to care:

I agree with you that interoperability plays a significant role in ensuring easier and faster transfer of EHR of patient between providers. Interoperability lessen chances of medical errors. Healthcare organizations are working on improving healthcare services through integrating technology (Pine, 2019). However, technology advancements in healthcare settings generate different difficulties. Improving care quality and access is associated with increased patient safety, the efficiency of care, and cost reduction. Interoperability helps healthcare facilities in using technology in providing quality healthcare services (Jaleel et al., 2020). Workflow analysis can identify areas where there is a delay in information or where the worker performs repetitive tasks, hence identifying interoperability issues. Noticing and solving interoperability issues maintain effective communication between patients and healthcare workers. Effective interoperability in the organization helps healthcare organizations to attain their organizational goals. The presence of a competent staff facilitates proper implementation and reinforcement of interoperability.

References

Jaleel, A., Mahmood, T., Hassan, M. A., Bano, G., & Khurshid, S. K. (2020). Towards medical data interoperability through collaboration of healthcare devices. IEEE Access, 8, 132302-132319. DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3009783

Pine, K. H. (2019). The qualculative dimension of healthcare data interoperability. Health Informatics Journal, 25(3), 536-548. https://doi.org/10.1177/1460458219833095

According to McGonigle and Mastrian (2018), interoperability is the ability of technology or systems to exchange data or information. Three types of interoperability are identified in healthcare systems: foundational, structural, and semantic, each adding more complexity to the capabilities. Semantic interoperability is a complex system that can analyze codified data (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2018). The premise behind electronic medical records is to streamline information and provide efficient care. The ability for EHR interoperability is crucial in meeting these objectives. For example, a patient in the ICU requires a vasoactive drip due to hypotension. The provider can enter the order with titration parameters for the nurse to follow to maintain the desired blood pressure goal range. The order is sent to the pharmacist via the EHR for validation that it was ordered correctly for the plan of care. Once the order is activated, the information is sent to the pyxis for the nurse to retrieve the medication under the patient’s profile. The nurse can administer and document the drug using the EHR, scanning and programming the IV pump per orders. Finally, once the drip is initiated, the EHR triggers a charge for the patient’s admission. This entire process can occur within minutes to address a medical emergency. Interoperability allowed the care team provides safe patient care in the desired timeframe while simultaneously following safety protocols, documenting the events, and capturing the charges for the patient’s bill.

Reference

McGonigle, D., Mastrian, K. G. (Eds.). (2018). Nursing informatics and the foundation of

knowledge (4th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning. ISBN-13: 9781284121247

I concur with you that interoperability is the ability of technology to exchange information. Healthcare professionals access different health information that informs critical decision-making process. Handling different health data may be challenging to some healthcare workers. Effective interoperability facilitates exchange of data in healthcare environment (Lehne et al., 2019). Three types of interoperability are identified in healthcare systems: foundational, structural, and semantic, each adding more complexity to the capabilities. Healthcare providers and workers have the freedom to choose their most suitable type of interoperability (Dobrow et al., 2019). All the three types of interoperability have different impact on healthcare service provision. Semantic interoperability is a complex system that can analyze codified data. The introduction of electronic medical records has intensified the efforts to have effective interoperability in healthcare organizations. Effective interoperability has enabled healthcare workers to maintain perfect communication with their patients. The ability for EHR interoperability is crucial in meeting healthcare organizational goals and objectives.

References

Dobrow, M. J., Bytautas, J. P., Tharmalingam, S., & Hagens, S. (2019). Interoperable electronic health records and health information exchanges: Systematic review. JMIR medical informatics, 7(2), e12607. doi:10.2196/12607

Lehne, M., Sass, J., Essenwanger, A., Schepers, J., & Thun, S. (2019). Why digital medicine depends on interoperability. NPJ digital medicine, 2(1), 1-5.

Coordination and consistency of care is extremely important in healthcare (DeNisco, 2021). However, effective coordination is difficult to attain without interoperability between electronic health records (EHRs). Although technology is available to improve interoperability, it is not utilized as much as it should be. Barriers to this include privacy concerns, reliability of data, and reimbursements for provided services.

Increasing interoperability between EHRs allows healthcare providers to receive valuable information in a timely manner, which is crucial for many reasons (DeNisco, 2021). First, this allows providers to review information on out-of-network patients so care can be consistent. Additionally, this allows providers to communicate with specialists about opinions and treatment recommendations. This improves quality and access to care because this often eliminates unnecessary referrals to specialists, which saves patients time and money. Coordinated care and effective communication amongst providers increases quality of care for patients. With adequate documentation of data exchanges, potential issues with interoperability can be identified by using workflow analysis. This analysis can identify missed steps, duplicated steps, and areas of improvement. Once issues are identified, evidence-based planning can be started to resolve the issue.

References

DeNisco, S.M. (2021). Advanced practice nursing: Essential knowledge for the profession (4th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Interoperability between EHRs and other disparate systems is essential to ensure patient data and information accuracy, safety, and privacy. Interoperable health IT is potentially a key to creating a communication channel between providers to access electronic health information to manage and coordinate patient care, ultimately improving care quality and patient safety and reducing cost.

Workflow analysis can identify users’ day-to-day operations tasks and work lists, thus analyzing the frequent use of data or records, where the worker performs repetitive tasks, delays in sharing information, or takes unnecessary steps to access the same data. Ultimate medical software or charting system should be tailor-made for healthcare providers per specialties models and compatible with the healthcare organization. In our complex healthcare systems, the EHRs aren’t getting easier. Thus workflow analysis can help eliminate unnecessary steps to access data, display good usability and functionality, improve efficient workflow for all healthcare stakeholders and provide practice resources.

Reference:

McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. (2017). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge (4th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.

NUR 514 Discuss the importance of interoperability between EHRs and other disparate systems and the impact on improving quality and access to care