Can you imagine trying to do your job without all the information necessary to make an educated decision? What would a mechanic do if a client brought in a used car with unknown mileage, regular maintenance was done at multiple facilities across the nation, and had the engine rebuilt at an external automotive center? How could the mechanic provide a diagnosis without any history from these previous updates and be expected to provide long term results to benefit the life of the car?
In a new Harris survey contracted by Google, feedback from 300 physicians across the US demonstrated the further need for improvement of interoperability in healthcare. The feedback compiled indicated that physicians are concerned about not having all the data in their electronic records, as well as the amount of time it takes to find all this information. It’s apparent that seamless data exchanges would enhance the opportunity to provide safer quality care and better outcomes.
Having the access to the right data at the right time is necessary and could save lives. Physicians shouldn’t be forced to review multiple screens with several data sources to get a complete picture of a patient. Technology should be increasing access and giving a comprehensive history of a patient’s problem lists, rather than extending the review.
Physicians have spoken which means healthcare institutions need to invest. Interoperability has been a buzzword over the past 10-15 years used by the government and healthcare to explain the need for data sharing. For physicians to provide the best possible care for patients, the whole picture needs to be available, which requires interoperability. Patient history can be widespread, whether within internal silos of a healthcare network or multiple healthcare networks across the country. Some of the data is shared, while some is in a static format unavailable for tracking and trending.
As expected, of those caregivers surveyed, a majority (96%) agreed that easier access to critical information could help to save lives. 63% said their biggest pain points are time consuming reporting systems. Additionally, 94% would support increased interoperability at their healthcare institution.
The organizations with data sharing assurance measures in place give physicians the best opportunity to providing the quality care. Instead of the time spent requiring clicking pop-ups, scrolling multiple tabs, opening attachments, etc., to review historical information the physician can provide personalized care.
The amount of time spent reviewing and updating patient health records ranged from an average of 4 hours up to 10 hours.
The consensus of the study was that physicians agree they could provide more personalized care with increased operations efficiency. The key to faster more accurate diagnosis will come with the providing of seamless interoperability of actionable data.
At Extract, we promote interoperability by taking all of the incoming paper and images you receive, and turning them into actionable, discrete data. If you’d like to learn more about how we do this, please send me a message at shane_dickson@extractsystems.com and I’d be happy to set up an introductory call or demonstration of the software.
Sources:
Google and Harris Poll Healthcare interoperability survey | Google Cloud Blog
About the Author: Shane Dickson
Shane is the Regional Business Development Manager at Extract with more than 13 years of experience in the healthcare marketplace. His healthcare background includes managed care, regulatory guidelines, quality analytics, and EMR software solutions in a number of modalities. He earned a Bachelor’s degree from St. Norbert College while playing DIII collegiate hockey. Shane takes pride in listening to customers workflow issues to provide sound software solutions long-term.