When hospitals and medical providers  invest in new EHR and HIE infrastructure, they need those systems to work well together. An improved data gathering, storage and management system will help operations, but not revolutionize them in the same way that a platform that fosters information sharing and collaboration can. Because of this, interoperability and healthcare system integration are emerging as critical needs in the sector.

This trend is evidenced in a recent study from the Optum Institute, which found that healthcare CIOs are dealing with excessive financial burdens and operational challenges because they are having a hard time developing compatible EHR setups, Healthcare Informatics reported.

The study found that community healthcare providers have made significant progress in establishing EHRs that meet meaningful use requirements. They are also having success in advancing health IT in general and supporting innovation within the sector. This has led to many hospital CIOs recognizing the value of interoperability between their hospital and the community healthcare providers. Interoperability between physician EHR systems and hospital is emerging as one of the more important areas for growth in the medical sector. The study found that most HIE users have access to data from just 60 percent of patients within the infrastructure, making it difficult to streamline operations. This is making interoperability a critical procedural requirement, as poor compatibility between EHR systems detracts from patient care and the business side of the healthcare equation.

While interoperability is proving troublesome for many healthcare organizations, the study did reveal that significant progress is being made when it comes to IT innovation. . Approximately 87 percent of respondents are actively using EHRs, a clear indication that the technology is truly taking hold in the sector. Furthermore, 70 percent of those polled said they have achieved meaningful use level one and 75 percent expect to reach level two by 2014.

Integration is key to taking EHRs from the stage of being a useful tool and making them a revolutionary technology. When patient data is automatically updated and shared between various healthcare entities,  physicians can easily gain access to the information they need to provide optimal care and be assured that all of the content is accurate and up to date. Without such measures, EHRs are often limited in actual use.

A recent survey of health IT leaders at the HIMSS 2012 conference found that achieving Meaningful Use for EHR setups is the top priority when it comes to employing new information technology systems in the sector, Healthcare Informatics reported.

While the largest percentage of respondents cited achieving meaningful use as their top priority, the number of organizations striving for this goal declined slightly from last year. Approximately 38 percent of those polled said they consider meaningful use as their primary focus for health IT innovation. Last year, more than half of survey participants named meaningful use their most important focus. However, the news source said this could be indicative that more organizations have made major progress toward meaningful use and are moving on to other areas.

Focusing on clinical systems was revealed as the No. 2 priority among medical providers, with 15 percent of respondents identifying this area as their chief focus. Furthermore, 13 percent of respondents pointed to either data warehousing, clinical decision support and evidence-based medicine as their primary areas of emphasis.

The survey also revealed that financial issues are not holding back the sector. The study found that for the first time in years, money is not considered the main barrier to healthcare IT adoption. This indicates that federal grants may be helping fuel innovation and at least validates that many healthcare providers are dedicating enough resources to support technological growth.

Instead of financial limitation, the study found that staffing resources are now the greatest barrier to innovation in the sector. Approximately 22 percent of respondents explained that finding staff with the right training to implement IT systems is the greatest challenge they face. Financial barriers came in second, with 14 percent of respondents saying a lack of resources is limiting technological growth.

As more healthcare providers advance their EHR systems and other IT investments, it is essential that they find ways to integrate their healthcare systems to enable data sharing and similar advanced capabilities. As physicians depend more heavily on EHRs, automatically updating data between systems is essential to limiting errors and ensuring doctors can always get access to the information they need.

Considering the rapid rise of EHR systems, the push to achieve meaningful use and the growing importance of HIEs within this sphere, healthcare system integration is emerging as a key need in the health sector. With the HIMSS12 Conference next week, the use of innovative healthcare solutions is undoubtedly on the mind of many healthcare practitioners.

As more medical facilities make the move to EHRs, many experts agree 2012 will see most organizations striving for meaningful use and working to deploy HIE systems in an effort to improve collaboration throughout the sector. Success in these areas will require creative deployment strategies, IT leadership and a focus on integrating information between different aspects of the EHR solution.

Enabling providers to effectively share medical information between emergency care EHRs and insurance and payment records systems is just one of the critical functions of information integration.

Topics of this nature will be a major priority at HIMSS12, with the event focusing on the motto "Linking people, potential and progress." Within the conference itself, this means that visitors will be able to interact with leaders in the healthcare IT industry and see first hand how different medical providers have implemented advanced technologies and integrated them to support information-sharing initiatives that are becoming so critical in the sector.

The catchphrase also describes the overarching trends in the healthcare industry, establishing the event as a microcosm of the sector as a whole. Progress is becoming the keyword of the healthcare sector. Years of inefficient operational models bred stagnation and created an industry that was built around insurance and billing, not patient care. Government initiatives are working to curb this trend, pushing for progress that will create potential in the industry.

The rapid pace of healthcare IT's evolution has established the sector's potential. Now that the foundation is in place, it is time for the sector to move on to integrating EHR infrastructure and developing policies that support meaningful use and HIE expansion. These measures could take healthcare from the goal of progress to the point where it reaches its full potential and brings the focus back to the people. Integration is an essential link between patients and the care that medical providers can offer them.

With its focus on progress, potential and people, HIMSS12 is poised to give medical providers the tools and knowledge they need to enable healthcare information integration and collaboration in such a way that they can better meet meaningful use standards and improve HIE infrastructure.

With a new year comes a fresh start and as 2012 creeps closer, it’s time to think about new IT approaches. Whether government mandated reform or non-required initiatives, certain IT practices will significantly help to streamline workflows, save money and improve overall patient care in the new year.

There is no question that meaningful use (MU) compliance should be one, if not the, top health IT priority in the new year. Along the same line, health information exchange (HIE) offers tremendous potential for the future, and is increasingly viewed as an essential step in improving the quality, safety and efficiency problems that plague U.S. healthcare delivery.

HIE interoperability is also key as it relates to meaningful use objectives like electronic exchange of clinical information and summaries of care, along with submitting lab results to public health agencies, etc. And while the full details of Stage 2 Meaningful Use are still emerging, it’s expected that data exchange requirements will be among the amped up mandates. Healthcare providers need to be prepared, especially providers within the MEDITECH community who find HIE connectivity particularly challenging.  

For MEDITECH organizations working to embrace meaningful use, HIE initiatives such as the process of updating and feeding data to its healthcare information system and exchanging data bi-directionally with physician offices can be especially difficult. These organizations need automated, scalable integration technology to bridge their healthcare systems and an expert interoperability partner to manage the process.  Building an integration landscape to store and manage more data and to have the ability to extract the data more rapidly will allow hospitals to participate more easily and quickly when MU standards are finalized.

For instance, Beaufort Memorial Hospital, a 197-bed acute care hospital in Beaufort, SC, is using Summit Express Connect to help report immunizations to public health agencies and exchange data directionally with physician offices. The engine enabled Beaufort to reduce its number of interfaces needed to develop or deploy to have data exchanged between its various applications, the EHRs and other electronic ordering systems used by doctors in the Beaufort community. Furthermore, building an interoperability environment to manage more data to meet the Stage 1 Meaningful Use criteria, Beaufort will have the basic infrastructure in place for health information exchange, which by design will enable the hospital to qualify for the more complex HIE requirements that are expected for Stage 2.

Beaufort Memorial is a great example of how health IT initiatives like MU and HIE go hand in hand and how strategically meeting meaningful use guidelines can be achieved by implementing an HIE.

What IT practices will your healthcare organization take on in the New Year?