Although many healthcare providers, including senior care operators, have touted interoperability in software systems as a major goal, much of its success depends on making sure health records are accessible within organizations.
The broader goal of making sure data can be exchanged efficiently between care settings, such as from hospitals to skilled nursing facilities, is equally important, and one recent study validates a potential open-IT concept that could facilitate this process.
The research focused on exchanging medications data between two commonly used electronic health records systems, Epic and PointClickCare.
The proof-of-concept study could help spur adoption of new interoperability tools in the long-term care sector, which often is slow to innovate, the study authors explained. They noted that the current issue is due to two overlapping concerns: EHR systems for hospitals and long-term care settings were developed separately, and the process for moving data between them is slow and laborious.
“Inadequate or delayed information exchange can result in medication errors, missed test results, considerable delays in care and even readmissions,” the study authors lamented. “Unfortunately, long-term and post-acute care facilities often lag behind in adopting health information technologies.”
Any lag or discrepancy in data between care settings can create several problems. Recently, issues with EHR data in California led to resources, including medications and appointments, being expended on people who already were dead, the McKnight’s Tech Daily reported earlier this month.
Initial adoption of EHR systems in long-term care settings was not as efficient as promised, since the interfaces were not always user-friendly, experts have noted. The systems still are more widely used in skilled nursing compared with assisted living.
EHR systems such as PointClickCare’s recently have released new software upgrades designed to address those issues and to ensure that all clinicians and staff members in an organization have easy access to an increasing amount of resident and patient data.
