Describe what interoperability means and why it is critical

Describe what interoperability means and why it is critical to advancing policy changes in reimbursement, quality patient care and population health. What barriers have been identified in realizing this goal of interoperability and what is being done to overcome these challenges?

Solution

Interoperability means the free flow of information between the electronic health records and clinical data. Interoperability is critical to advancing policy changes in reimbursement, quality patient care and population health because accurate patient data is very critical to ensure all these. Without the exchange of information it is not possible to gather all the data which relates to the patient from various sources. The patient may consult different physicians under different situations and may have different prescriptions. Gathering information related to critical illness is very important. It is not possible to collect all the information without interoperability and the critical information need to be shared between systems to ensure quality of care and patient health. The policy changes in reimbursement also require data to analyze and the same is not possible without accurate patient data.

The barriers identified in achieving interoperability include the different EHRs used by different organization which makes the transfer of data difficult between the unique EHRinterfaces. To overcome this challenge the organizations should make their EHRs accessible and use similar tools to make the data sharing easy. Another challenge is that the information providers are reluctant to share the data. This barrier can be overcome by implementing rules and regulations that ensure that providers do not engage in data blocking and ensure transparency. Another challenge is the sensitivity of the information. The privacy and security of the information should be ensured in order to protect the sensitive data. another challenge is the high volume of data that is growing day by day and the technology should be able to manage the high volume data.