The disconnect in U.S. health care results in higher costs and less favorable outcomes for patients. In the United States, personal health information is largely held within hospitals, physician practices and pharmacies, and typically cannot be shared routinely outside those individual settings. Organizations that permit secure sharing of pertinent information, like Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) and Regional Health Information Organizations (RHIOs) are an effective method to ameliorate the situation.
Transfers of care from one provider to another are a common pitfall for gaps in care. When patients move from within and across health care systems, delayed patient care and reduced quality and efficiency of health care occurs without also the proper transfer of information. The exchange of health care data improves provider communication, provides for better coordination of care and transfers, increases patient engagement and lowers overall costs of care. Coordinated efforts of treatment and procedure documentation also provide a higher level of patient safety by decreasing unnecessary duplication of services, such as repeated imaging.
At the present time, there is no universal grid that permits all providers to plug and play their information. Due to security concerns and the difficulty of establishing interoperability standards, health systems that utilize differing EHRs often need assistance making sense of the data, workflows and establishing peer relationships of data. The health care technology industry, in concert with vendors, providers, payors and regulatory agencies, need to embrace present and future efforts to establish universal standards — the safety of our patients is depending on it.
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