Authored by: Angie Adams
When you visit the doctor, you’re probably asked a series of questions. And if you have specific concerns, you might bring a copy of your medical records or other information to share more details. But still, the doctor and care team only have access to what’s in front of them (and what’s in their systems), and they can’t always see the whole picture. And that makes it far too easy for potential issues to fly under the radar.
The good news is that health care interoperability is advancing, with 67% of health care workers reporting they “often” or “nearly always” have access to required patient records. The not-so-good news is that 33% of practitioners still don’t have access to what they need, and even the ones that think they do might still be missing important pieces of the health puzzle.
Working without all the puzzle pieces
When you work on a puzzle, it’s helpful to see the entire picture, right? To start, you likely grab the box, study the picture to see what colors go where and then, start working on the edges.
To continue this analogy, when data lives in disparate systems that don’t “talk” to one another, health care workers can’t see the “entire patient picture.” Instead, they see only see a few pieces without any context of how they fit together. This creates significant challenges.
For example, a patient with an autoimmune disease may have many symptoms that don’t appear related but are. Without visibility into the whole picture, specialists treat that one individual symptom – i.e., A rheumatologist treats joint pain, a neurologist treats neuropathy, and a dermatologist treats skin issues – and none see the way those “puzzle pieces” connect. And, with each specialist working in a silo, ordering their own blood work and tests, they inadvertently duplicate efforts and drive up expenses for the patient and the healthcare payer.
Unifying data to connect the dots
Unifying data allows physicians and care team in unrelated specialties to understand the entire health picture. For example, instead of treating stand-alone neuropathy in a patient who actually has an autoimmune disorder, the practitioner can view the complete health history and begin to spot patterns, supporting more accurate diagnosis and treatment.
Increased visibility also helps improve efficiency. For example, it’s not uncommon for a patient to visit a specialist’s office with a handful of records and expect the practitioner to review them during the appointment. When data is unified, the practitioner has what’s required before the patient visits – and they don’t have to try to connect dots on the spot.
Fostering interoperability
One of the most common ways to improve interoperability is by using a large electronic health records (EHR) system. These interconnected systems allow health care workers to unify data for a more comprehensive view of a patient’s health. However, these systems are expensive, especially for smaller providers.
Practices not using a large EHR system can still make changes to support easier interoperability in the future. For example, you can ensure that whatever EHR system you use integrates easily with other systems. Additionally, consider implementing processes that help you break free of unstructured data (think PDFs or paper chart files). Intelligent capture tools allow you to extract unstructured data to get that information into your system efficiently. So when the patient brings paper documents to their appointment, you can electronically capture and store that information so the next provider can quickly review it.
Payers can take a similar approach to support future interoperability. If you receive large amounts of manually processed data, intelligent capture can help get this data into your workflows more accurately and efficiently, ensuring more data is available in the future as interoperability capabilities advance.
Focusing on health care rather than sick care
A complete view of the patient could support a transition from “sick care” to “health care.” Improved interoperability, for example, could give researchers greater visibility to more easily identify disease causes so that care could shift to a more preventive approach.
And, of course, a complete view of a patient’s health supports health care workers in understanding more about a patient’s health and identifying issues faster. And this shift could help improve patient outcomes, free up clinical resources, and reduce payer and patient expenses.