A survey of hospital and health system senior executives has found that nearly a third reported their data-sharing efforts are insufficient, even within their own organizations, and fewer than four in 10 said they are successfully sharing healthcare data with other health systems.
The research, from the Center for Connected Medicine (CCM), in partnership with HIMSS Media, included responses from 100 industry leaders employed in a mix of IT, informatics, business and clinical roles at U.S. hospitals and health systems.
Nearly 60 percent of the survey respondents cited moving to one electronic health record (EHR) as an organizational step being taken to overcome interoperability difficulties, much higher than other actions named, such as the adoption of widely promoted healthcare exchange standards, such as FHIR, cited by 37 percent of respondents, or leveraging health information exchanges (HIEs), cited by 38 percent. Hiring new talent (44 percent) ranked second highest as a step needed to be taken to overcome interoperability challenges.
However, on a more positive note, the survey found that a majority of respondents—about 90 percent—reported that they are aligning their technology plans with interoperability objectives and adequately addressing technical and non-technical aspects of interoperability. Furthering this finding, 78 percent said their organization is applying the right balance of resources to address the people, process, and technology requirements needed to advance interoperability.
But how successful and effective are organizations’ data-sharing efforts? About 69 percent said they are effective at sharing data within their own organizations, while 37 percent reported their organizations are successfully sharing with other health systems. What’s more, just 27 percent of respondents said their organizations’ work to improve interoperability had allowed them to reduce the cost of care. Fifty-eight percent said they were successful at sharing health data with payers, and 57 percent said the same about sharing information with patients.
Overall, however, the external data sharing with other health systems and outside partners is hampering operations. “This obstacle is standing in the way of key organizational goals, including enabling patient-facing apps, tapping into unstructured data, and reducing the cost of care,” according to the researchers.
Regarding the core challenges that patient care organization leaders are having to overcome due to a lack of advanced interoperability, improving workflow (42 percent) ranked highest, followed by enabling new models of care (41 percent), improving population health (39 percent), reducing the cost of care (36 percent), and advancing analytics capabilities (36 percent).
The most crucial elements needed to push interoperability forward in healthcare, according to survey respondents, are commitment by senior leadership (53 percent) financial incentives or penalties that encourage organizations to share data with one another and with individual patients (52 percent), and advances in tools and technologies (52 percent).
“Extending advancements in interoperability to the broader healthcare ecosystem will be critical to progressing digital health initiatives and enabling new ways to serve patients,” said Janet King, senior director of market insights at HIMSS Media. “Advancements in technology solutions are recognized by more than half of the healthcare leaders responding to the research as among the most critical elements to make that happen.”
