The Benefits of EHR Interoperability for Patients and Providers
Providers and patients alike reap the benefits of integration and interoperability. When clinicians enjoy better communication and coordination among care teams (and fewer manual processes), providers can deliver high-quality care more efficiently, which helps alleviate clinician burnout and creates a better experience for patients.
With health information exchange, providers have access to patients’ complete medical history, including accurate, up-to-date information on patients’ healthcare visits, diagnoses, tests, medications and medication allergies. Such information, when easily accessible, can lead to more accurate and effective diagnoses and treatment so patients receive better care.
“We use that information to be better providers and do a better job. Without that information, you’re flying blind,” Eisenberg says.
True integration and interoperability enable providers to become more effective and more efficient. “I can be more efficient as a provider because I can see what other providers’ evaluations and test results have been, so I can reduce the cost of duplicating those services,” Eisenberg says. “When you build interoperability into a system, you make it more efficient, and you reduce waste.”
READ MORE: How can health systems use data to improve clinical workflows through EHR optimization?
Interoperability allows healthcare organizations not only to share information — both internally and with other organizations — but also to understand what that information means. For example, if one hospital names blood tests one way and another names blood tests differently, they both can share and understand each other’s blood test data.
Stanford Health Care first began using Epic’s electronic health records in 2008 and has been expanding health record exchange and access ever since. Today, almost 100% of Stanford Health Care patients have a record from another healthcare provider, and about two-thirds have records from at least two other providers.
One way that Stanford Health Care has improved workflow and care, Eisenberg says, is by having patients take an opt-out rather than opt-in approach to health information exchange. This approach reduces friction in sharing critical patient information among providers.
The Journey to Integration and Interoperability in Healthcare
For healthcare organizations that are early in their interoperability journeys, Eisenberg offers one piece of advice: “Join TEFCA.” In 2016, the US Congress overwhelmingly passed the 21st Century Cares Act, which set up the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement. TEFCA, which went live in late 2023, removes barriers for sharing health records electronically among healthcare providers, patients, public health agencies and payers.
As a result of such efforts, workflow optimization through integration and interoperability has become the healthcare industry’s gold standard.
“This is a 25-year national effort to help patients and providers take advantage of health information exchange for the betterment of Americans’ health,” Eisenberg says. “Regardless of your technology, health information flows with patients, and patients also can access that information themselves.”
Plus, Eisenberg adds, “no one’s carting paper records anymore.”
