Why Healthcare Needs Increased Clinical And Administrative Data Integration

Healthcare data is collected to improve the cost and quality of healthcare. But this leads to the question of how to incorporate data of different quality and accessibility, as the data is usually sourced from a wide variety of systems used within administrative and clinical systems.

Interoperability between administrative and clinical systems offers the opportunity to exchange data across health systems, especially between payers and providers. This exchange results in better patient experience, lowers costs, and improves health outcomes.

According to Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), healthcare data interoperability is “the ability of different information technology systems and software applications to communicate, exchange data, and use the information that has been exchanged”.

(source: https://archer-soft.com/blog/healthcare-data-integration-how-combine-data-multiple-sources)

The current challenge: Administrative and clinical data streams are regulated by different technical standards and they are coded differently. They are subject to separate laws mandated by different entities about how they can be recorded and shared. All this makes the exchange of information more difficult.

Data integration is important. Without data integration management, providers risk retrospective claims denials, increased readmission rates, adverse events, and patient dissatisfaction.

This is where the health information professional plays an important role. Their knowledge of EHR data and related workflows gives them the knowledge and experience as to how providers can best connect and implement systems. Health information experts have an eye for the big picture and their leadership role is an essential part of this process.

Patrick Murta, Da Vinci Project member and chief interoperability architect and fellow at Humana sates it’s crucial “to have the right data at the right time in the right workflow to improve our member’s health and remove friction from the care experience for both providers and patients.”

Collaboration between payers and providers will provide the opportunity to effectively share quality and risk data. Through better information sharing, this increased payer-provider cooperation has the potential to increase efficiency and lead to better patient care and outcomes.

(source: https://journal.ahima.org/a-pathway-to-clinical-and-administrative-data-integration/)

The info-blocking final regulations, published March 9 by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) go into effect on November 2.

(source: https://www.cerner.com/perspectives/understanding-information-blocking-exceptions-and-compliance)

Healthcare providers, vendors, health information exchanges and other organizations could be subject to penalties should they interfere with the access, exchange or use of electronic health information.

COVID-19 has challenged healthcare organizations to embrace data integration as a tool of dealing more efficiently with data as well as handle a larger amount of information collected from various sources.

In the next months, there will surely be pressure to comply by adopting new technologies, workflows and governance models.

There are a lot of solutions that can help with today’s data challenges. Our health information experts at Primeau Consulting Group are ready to deliver the right solutions for your healthcare organization. PCG has incorporated the information blocking rules into its Assessment to ensure organizations are identifying and mitigating the areas needed for compliance of the Final Rule.

Patient outcomes should always be the no. 1 priority. Primeau Consulting Group’s Information Governance (IG) Assessment and Consulting Services help healthcare organizations prepare by assessing data and information, identifying sensitive information assets and developing a governance program to align with strategic goals.

The IG Assessment is powered by its partnership with CompliancePro Solutions™.

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