Describe three (3) national infrastructures that require interoperability between all hospitals in the United States. Next, suggest two (2) ways that the use of an integrated delivery system improves the quality of patient services. Justify your response in relation to this week’s videos.
Enforcing standards is also a challenge for interoperability measurement. With new interoperability improvement initiatives frequently sprouting up across the industry, federal agencies need a way to measure the progress of these initiatives by assessing the state of health IT interoperability in a consistent way. The framework was designed to evaluate the industrys progress toward implementing interoperability standards and assess the way standards are used to measure interoperability improvements. Quality in healthcare means providing the care the patient needs when the patient needs it, in an affordable, safe, effective manner (Elation Health, 2017).
Improving measurement standards will assist in tracking progress on a national scale. The framework recommended requiring health IT companies to report the percentage of end-users utilizing a particular standard, the volume of transactions by standard, and the conformance and customization of standards following implementation. By promoting consistent standards measurement nationwide, ONC can inhibit health IT developers, healthcare organizations, and HIEs from applying standards differently. Current ONC efforts and bills in Congress pursue enforcement by authorizing the OIG to investigate and establish deterrents to information blocking researchers concluded. If successful, reducing information blocking will help ensure that data follow patients across provider organizations, which is essential to improving the quality and efficiency of care.
Additionally, while information blocking has not been entirely eradicated, some existing policies have yielded improvements. Increasing transparency of EHR vendor business practices and product performance, stronger financial incentives for providers to share information, and making information blocking illegal were perceived as the most effective policy remedies. We run into instances where the health organizations and other vendors may think this is their data and may use this for competitive reasons, he observed. That mindset isnt good because its not helping the patients (Challenges Achieving Healthcare, 2017).
